We've Got A Big Mess On Our Hands
by Lahdolphin
Summary: Marui and Jackal are in a band, Niou is a punk stoner, Yagyuu is breaking bad, Kirihara is a skateboard junkie, and Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi are going along for the ride. No one said high school would be like this. AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Warning****: this fic contains m/m, m/f, and canon/OC relationships. It also includes drug usage, mental issues, and mentions of suicide.**

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_We've Got A Big Mess On Our Hands_

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**Chapter 1.**

_Cute_, Marui thinks as he blows a bubble.

Marui looks at the new guy, who has one of those sharp and pointy faces that makes you think of an elf, at the void in his strange blue eyes, at the small holes in his ears where gauged earrings should be. He stands slouched with his lanky arms at his sides and hands in his back pockets.

"Class, this is Niou Masaharu. He'll be with us for the rest of the year. Niou-kun, say something about yourself."

"I don't want to."

The teacher sighs and grips the bridge of his nose. "Go and sit next to Marui-kun. He's the one about to swallow his gum because he knows he'll get detention if he doesn't."

Marui sticks his gum under his tongue, swallows spit, and flashes the teacher a dazzling smile. "Sorry, Sir. It won't happen again."

"Don't make promises you can't keep. Now, we're going to continue our lecture on techniques used to solve higher order differential equations..."

Niou walks silently and swiftly like a cat. He sits in his chair and there's so much space between his stomach and the desk that Marui wonders if this guy eats. He doesn't spare a glance for Marui and stares blankly at the chalkboard. Marui can see the chords of headphones running down his neck and under his sweater.

Marui doesn't give a damn if anyone in the class pays attention or not—if they fail, that's their own fault for slacking off. If they get caught listening to music, that's another story. If one idiot gets caught, the teacher will catch on and then where will they be? Marui needs his music some days and this new guy isn't going to take that from him, even if he's attractive.

"Hey, go up the back next time," Marui says. Niou furrows his thin white eyebrows together and pulls out a single headphone. "Don't get us all in trouble," he adds, taping his ear for clarification.

Niou puts his headphone back in and returns to staring at the front of the room.

"Bastard," Marui says.

"Asshole," Niou replies.

Marui stares wide-eyed at the new guy. He's too stunned to reply for a moment, but quickly comes back with, "Cocksucker."

"Yup."

What the fuck?

"Marui-kun!" the teacher snaps. "Stop talking. And I thought I told you to swallow that gum."

Marui can see Niou's thin lips move at the corner. Is he smirking?

Niou continues to stare forward as if Marui is beneath him. Whatever. The new guy's a rude, albeit hot, freak. Marui's dealt with plenty of those before.

Marui puts his phone on the desk between his textbook and his stomach. He skips past the texts from Ren and goes to the one's from his bandmates. Marui isn't one to brag unless it will benefit him, but he's the lead singer of a popular band in the underground music scene.

The band is called Zero to Hero and has five members, plus a guy who helps them with lights and sound for their shows. They play at parties and clubs that most people don't know exist, and they already have one album out. The album was self produced and they only sold a few hundred over the past two years, but it was something. Their songs aren't played on the radio legally, but Marui hears them at least once a week on the pirate station he listens to.

Marui frowns at his phone and the shit storm Urayama sent him.

_slammed my finger in the door this morning. ill let u no if i can make practice _

_its purple now omg its purple （；￣__д￣）_

_so i jammed my finger and cant play until its not purple  
please dont kill me (一。一__;;）_

Marui rolls his eyes and types a response.

_It's fine just get better! And stop with the damn emots they're annoying._

Urayama is quick to respond: _thank u thank u thank u (づ￣ __³￣__)づ_

Is he being thanked for not killing someone? He sighs and begins running through which of their songs require a keyboard or a second guitar. There's a lot, but not enough to cancel practice.

It sucks to have any band member out of commission for any amount of time right now because they're working on their second album. They can't play through new songs without the full band.

He pulls up Oyama's number and sends him a message.

_Is your acoustic at my place? Tell Urayama he can still come and listen if he wants. _

He receives a response several minutes later: _it is and okay._

He checks the rest of his texts—Jackal asked if he got a text from Urayama and Kato asked if they still have practice if Urayama loses his finger. He tells Jackal they'll do acoustic during practice today and Kato to shut up. He receives an _okay_ from Jackal and nothing from Kato.

He scrolls back through to the texts from Ren. She sent a very explicit text about how she was going to murder her volleyball captain for the hell that was her morning practice, then another complaining about how boring class is.

Marui loves everything about girls. He loves girls who have curves and extra weight and a confidence about them, girls who know they're sexy despite their size. He loves girls who are gentle and kind, who are soft and warm under his hands. And he loves girls like Ren, who are thin with muscles and don't curve in all the places some girls does, girls who know what they like and aren't afraid to get it. He loves everything about every girl and some may call him a liar, but it's true.

He also loves everything about boys, but he can't exactly be as open about those feelings.

He opens up Ren's text and responds.

_Sucks that you're bored. Play a game on your phone? _

_Battery's almost dead_

_Wanna get lunch on the roof today?_

_Sure _

Marui tunes in and out of lecture, occasionally jotting down a note about integration factors or partial solutions. He scribbles lyrics in the margins of his history notes and tapes out the tune to a song on pencils during English. Out of curiosity, he periodically looks over at Niou, who continues to stare at the lecturer with a distant, bored expression.

When the lunch bell goes off, Marui grabs his bag with his lunch and heads out of the room. He jogs up the stairs, taking them three at a time, and exits through the NO EXIT door at the top of the stairs. Ren is in the classroom above his and is already there.

Ren presses her hands to his chest and presses a kiss to his cheek. She takes his hand and leads him to the edge of the roof where she sits, back to the fence. He lies down and rests his head on her thighs like pillows.

"You look pretty today," he says.

"You always say that," she says.

"But you always look pretty."

The only proper way to describe Marui's relationship with Ren is blunt and crass: they're fuck buddies.

Ren eats her store bought lunch and feeds Marui the leftovers he brought from home. She swipes grains of rice off his cheeks with her thumb and laughs when he gets a piece of seaweed stuck between his teeth.

"So, what's on your mind?" she asks when they're finished eating. "You don't call me for lunch unless something's up."

"There's this new kid and he's a hot jackass," Marui says. He tells her his short conversation with Niou and she listens attentively, nodding and humming in all the right places. "Who the fuck transfers schools halfway through the first semester anyways?" Marui grumbles when he finishes.

Ren runs her hands through his hair, fluffing it and petting gently. "You're so cute when you're frustrated," she says, laughing softly at him.

Marui pouts and she laughs louder, then leans down to kiss him. Her lips are full and slick with cheap cherry lipgloss that's sweet on his tongue. He sighs and runs a hand up her back, rubbing over the clasps of her pretty pink bra that he can see through her blouse. She nips at his bottom lip and pulls away, smacking his hand away.

"Not at school," Ren chastises. She returns to petting through his hair and he closes his eyes. "My parents aren't home today; they have a dinner date. We can't have sex because I'm on my period, but we can cuddle and watch movies while we make out."

"I can hang out after band practice," he says. "I'll call you."

.

The only thing that Marui pushes through the rest of the day is the thought of band practice and cuddling with Ren. The bell rings and Marui quickly gathers his things to meet up with the rest of the band. His phone begins to play the chorus to one of their songs when he's halfway down the stairs.

"Hey, Kato, what's up?" Marui answers.

"I can't make practice," Kato says. She sounds furious, more so than she usually does after school. "And before you try and rip me a new one for not texting you guys earlier, you should know our school now makes us put our phones in a container before class to 'create a better learning environment.' It's _bullshit_."

"That explains why you didn't text me back. Ignore all my texts calling you a bitch for not answering me."

"You called me a bitch? You dick."

Kato is the band's drummer and sole female member. She used to go to Rikkaidai High with them, but after her mom caught her smoking a cigarette last year, she's been forced into an all girls' school, which, according to Kato, is worse than the ninth circle of hell.

"Why can't you make practice?" Marui asks.

"I got detention. Apparently correcting the teacher because they're a dumb ass is 'disrespectful.' He said we came from _monkeys_. This place is killing me."

"Well shit. Urayama can't play until his finger isn't purple or something because he fucked it up bad this morning. We were going to try to do acoustic, but I'd prefer to have drums in case."

"Don't blame me."

"I don't. And I see the others," Marui says. "I'll tell them you can't make it today. Go to detention before you get in more trouble."

Marui can picture her rolling her eyes and slamming her phone shut. She refuses to buy a smart phone because she likes slamming her phone dramatically.

Marui walks up to Jackal, Oyama and Urayama, who has his left middle finger in a cheap finger splint. Oyama has gummy worms hanging out of his mouth and his hand in the bag to get more the second he finishes the ones in his mouth.

Oyama Kenta may have long dark hair, a ton of crazy piercings in his ears, and could tower over the tallest guy on the basketball team, but he doesn't look it. He doesn't hold himself the way you would expected him to. He keeps his arms to himself and his back subtly hunched to make himself appear shorter. He doesn't hold himself like he's bigger or better or stronger than anyone unless he needs to.

Marui likes to think of Oyama as a freakishly large puppy.

"I am so sorry about my finger," Urayama says. "Kenta and I were leaving his apartment and his cat tried to run by and I panicked and—"

"Breathe, Urayama, breathe," Jackal says. "It's fine. We're just glad you didn't break anything."

"Yeah," Marui says. "We're not recording for awhile and I want to look over some lines again. Plus this gives us an excuse to work on some acoustic versions for the album. Kato can't come either."

"What? Why?" Jackal asks. "She didn't text me. Oh, never mind, she just did."

"Her school has some new BS policy about phones," Marui says. "And she has detention so we can't do much besides acoustic."

"We can go through those songs you wrote a few months ago and decide if we're going to play any," Jackal says.

"I want to change some things in the music for the new song," Oyama says.

"I'll do anything to help as long as I don't have to write my English paper," Urayama says with a happy smile.

.

Even though the bell rang, Yukimura patiently waits until the teacher is done talking to pack his things. He carefully puts his bag over his shoulder and digs into his pocket for his phone so he can text Yanagi.

_Where are you?_

_Student council room with Yagyuu and Genichirou._

He walks against the flow of hall traffic; everyone is leaving but club members and students with detention. A few acquaintances wave and say their variation of _good-bye_. Kirihara blazes past, carrying his skateboard at his side, and gives a two-fingered, improper salute. Yukimura tells him not to run in the hall.

He cuts down the corner stairwell and into the student council room on the first floor before going to the art studio. Yagyuu is writing a schedule on the blackboard while Yanagi sits on the desk and watches, occasionally adding his input. Sanada is standing idly next to the desk.

"I thought you had practice," Yukimura says to Sanada.

"I canceled," Sanada says. "Half the team has the flu from running in the rain a few days ago."

Yukimura sits on the desk next to Yanagi and looks at the board. "Is this the list of winter fundraisers?"

"Yes; I'm writing it in advance for tomorrow morning's meeting. Is there something you need?" Yagyuu asks. "We don't have a meeting today."

Yagyuu is the student council president and Yukimura and Yanagi are class representatives. They don't do anything except organized fundraisers to collect money for the school, but the positions look good on university applications.

Half the things they do are for university, like Yanagi joining the chess club and Sanada running the kendo club. Yukimura is a member of the art club for fun, but the fact that it looks good certainly isn't hurting anyone.

"I don't need anything," Yukimura says. "But I do want to talk about our new classmate. You showed him around this morning, didn't you, Yagyuu?"

"Yes."

"Well, I heard an interesting rumor about him during lunch."

"Do tell," Yanagi says.

"You're all gossip whores," Sanada grumbles.

"Some girls who have friends at his old school said he was expelled for being gay. No one knows the details since the administration kept it very quiet, but that is the final consensus."

"And why are you telling me this?" Yagyuu asks with a heavy sigh.

Yukimura smiles slyly. "No reason in particular."

The door to the room slams open and the four turn to see what's the matter. The vice-president Nishimura is holding Kirihara, who has a giant red mark on the side of his head and a nervous smile, by the collar of his shirt. Nishimura drags Kirihara into the room, kicks the door shut behind him, and makes a noise similar to a growl.

"Akaya, what did you do?" Yukimura asks.

"He decided slide down the railing on his skateboard—"

"I was grinding," Kirihara grumbles like a child.

"_Fine_," Nishimura says irritably. He looks ready to kill. "He was grinding down the railing of the main staircase, got his skateboard caught on someone's bag, and went flying halfway across the lobby. How many times have we told you that you can have your stupid skateboard in school as long as you don't ride it inside!"

"Seventy six," Yanagi says.

"It was rhetorical," Nishimura says.

He lets go of Kirihara's collar and Kirihara goes forward to Yukimura in search of some form of protection.

When Kirihara's older sister babysat Yukimura, she brought Akaya along and the two boys became quite close over the years. In times of trouble, Kirihara uses Yukimura as his shield. It usually works since Yukimura is one of the most popular, most influential students in the school.

But against Nishimura and Yagyuu, Kirihara has a fifty-fifty chance of it blowing up in his face.

"I was in a hurry and wasn't thinking," Kirihara says. "Hiyoshi and Zaizen can't hang out for that long today and I wanted to get there as quick as possible. I'm sorry."

"Don't say you're sorry if you're not sorry," Sanada says.

"Sorry," Kirihara says and Yukimura smiles.

"Kirihara-kun, I can't keep covering for you because you're Yukimura's friend," Yagyuu says. "You have detention tomorrow. You're lucky it's not more."

"Very lucky," Nishimura hisses.

Kirihara groans then rubs where his head hit the floor. At least he didn't eat asphalt this time.

.

For Niou, days pass in a blur of smoke and strange flavored pocky, which he steals from the red head's bag when he isn't looking. He threads his headphones up the back of his uniform at the red head's passive aggressive request and finds that it does make them less noticeable. He steals an extra pack of pocky the day he realizes this, but the red head never notices.

He tilts to the back two legs of his chair when he finishes his math exam and waits for someone else to finish. If he turned in his exam now, his teacher would make him do more work and he really isn't up for that. Instead, he stares at his test and tries to make it look like he's working.

_Finally_, he thinks when a girl stands up to hand in her test. The teacher says something and the girl returns to her desk and pulls out her textbook.

Niou gets out of his seat and puts his test on the front desk. "Can I go to the bathroom?" he asks.

The teacher looks confused for a moment and flips through Niou's work to check if he did it all. Niou is tempted to say he's not a complete idiot at math like half the kids in the class, but he holds his tongue.

"Sure, Niou-kun. Take the pass."

Niou takes the wooden pass from the door, notices the red head staring at him as he goes, and makes his way to the boys' room at the end of the hall. He curls his tongue and misses the press of his metal piercing.

During his first day, the student council president told him he had to take out all of his piercings until the school day was over. Niou keeps his hip piercings in since no one can see them and they're a bitch to take out, but he feels naked without all of his metal.

He enters the bathroom, checks the stalls and, once he realizes he is alone, locks the door behind him. He sits on the windowsill, and pulls his cheap disposable lighter and a hand rolled joint out of his pocket. He already scoped the school for security cameras and there's a blind spot at this window, so he doesn't have to worry about being caught.

The first burn of familiar smoke in his lungs calms him immediately.

He cracks the window and takes his time. He's still new enough to the school to use the "I got lost" excuse. His teacher already thinks he's a dumb ass delinquent so it won't be a big shock if he comes back a few minutes later than he should. Besides, he needs to make this last the rest of the day or he'll be hyperventilating into a bag.

_Why the hell are classes at this school so damn big anyways?_ he wonders as he puts the joint back to his lips. He inhales deeply and holds it for several seconds before exhaling out the window.

The door knob rattles as someone tries to come in.

"Yeah, yeah, just a sec," Niou calls. He stamps out the joint on the bottom of his shoe and shoves it into his pocket.

When he gets up to let the poor kid in to piss, the door opens. The student council president holds up a key—Niou makes a note to make a copy of it when he gets the chance—and eyes Niou.

"Niou-kun," he says. He wrinkles his nose and adjusts his glasses. "Why did you look the door? Were you smoking?"

"Me? Never." Niou puts on an innocent mask and the president sighs. He pushes against Niou's chest with a single hand, causing Niou to take a few steps back into the bathroom, and locks the door behind him.

"Cigarettes or marijuana?"

Niou raises an eyebrow at the serious tone. If this guy is expecting him to answer that honestly, he's an idiot. But regardless of his innate ability to lie through his teeth, Niou figures he could use some collateral in a situation like this.

"Does it make a difference?" Niou asks. He reaches out, slipping two fingers into the guy's pocket while keeping his thumb tucked and out of the way. He takes his wallet first and quickly reaches back for his phone, putting both items into his back pocket. He does this as he speaks, keeping eye contact, "Or are you looking to get high, Mr. Goody-two-shoes?"

"Answer the question."

"Cigarettes."

"I heard a rumor about you, Niou-kun."

"And what would that rumor be?"

"That you were kicked out of your old school for being gay."

"And?"

"Is that true?"

"I suppose that in a way, I was kicked out for being gay." Niou grins mischievously. He's too high to think this through and it's just too much fun messing with guys like him. He says, "I was sucking a guy's dick in the bathroom during forth period. Apparently it was good because he was so loud that we got caught."

The president shifts his weight between his feet. Niou cocks his head and tries to gauge the reaction he just got. Most people would freak if he told them that, especially if they're male and egotistical enough to think he wants in their pants. Others would laugh off his serious, blunt admission as a joke. But this guy hasn't done either.

Interesting.

"I have a proposition for you," the guy says suddenly. "I'm in the closet and have been looking for a partner to experiment with. I won't force you into anything and this is by no means blackmail. Just think it over."

"Okay," Niou says.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, okay. We can dick around. I have rules, though. I don't do anal in any form. So no fingering, no rimming, and no penetration for either of us. You always wear a condom for blowjobs and use lube for handjobs."

"If that's all, then—"

"No dates and no intervening with the other's personal life," Niou goes on. The president looks at him like he's trying to remember all of it, but is all accepting all of it too. "You can ask me anything about my previous sexual encounters, but I won't tell you names. And you'll need to get tested before we do anything."

The president waits a moment before saying, "Is that all?"

Niou resists the urge to smile because this guy is only the second person to say that to him. The rest call him fucking crazy or a whore, neither of which is entirely inaccurate.

"One more: if either of us develops feelings, it's over," Niou says. "That's all."

"Okay. I guess we should exchange numbers and—" Niou takes the president's phone out of his own back pocket, opening it to add his number to his contacts. The guy points and asks, "When did you take my phone?"

"When you asked me whether I was smoking pot or cigarettes. I thought you would bust me so I picked your pocket."

"And what would you have done with it?" the president asks curiously. "Also, the next time you answer that question, make sure you don't smell like marijuana."

"Not sure. You knew?"

"You knew exactly what you would do, didn't you? And of course I knew. I'm not an idiot, Niou-kun."

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." Niou smirks and hands the president his phone and wallet. He slides his hands into his pocket, fiddles with the lighter there, and passes him as he heads for the door. Niou pauses and turns back around to ask, "What's your name again?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

Jackal is sitting in the courtyard with Oyama and Urayama before school starts when a pair of small, familiar breasts press up against his back. Two tiny arms wrap around his neck and soft hands that smell of lavender cover his eyes. A teasing voice sings into his ear, "Guess who."

"Marui," Jackal says. "No. Yukimura?"

"Guess again." Jackal hums and pretends to struggle with his next guess. The girl presses in closer, the heat of her chest radiating through their school uniforms. "Or do you need another hint?" she asks.

"Sanada."

She moves in impossibly closer, whispering into his ear, "Does Sanada wear pretty panties?"

"Aiko," he says. "And I really hope he doesn't because that image is mentally scarring."

The hands come off his eyes and a pair of lips press against his cheek. He turns his head to the side and catches her lips in a chaste kiss. Aiko smiles, her lips going up and showing her teeth. Jackal stares at the familiar specks of color in her hazel eyes, smells her lavender hand lotion that she uses every morning, smiles at her smile.

"Good morning," he says. She stays seated behind him but shifts her arms so they circle his torso. He covers her hands with his, which are so large they encase hers completely.

"Good morning, babe," she says. "And good morning to you, Oyama-kun."

"Hey, I'm here too," Urayama says, pouting.

"You too, Urayama-kun. How's the finger?"

"All healed up."

"That's good to hear."

Aiko presses gentle kisses to Jackal's neck. Her curly hair tickles and the butterfly brushes of her lips aren't helping; Jackal laughs. She soon stops and rests her chin on his shoulder.

"So I was on the train with Marui this morning and he was swearing to the moon and back that the new kid is stealing his snacks," Aiko says. "I didn't even know there wasa new kid."

"He came here a few weeks ago. His name's Niou," Jackal says. "He got kicked out of his last school or something. Yukimura's made it his mission to be his friend even though they haven't met."

"Why?" Urayama asks.

"Because he's Yukimura," Jackal says.

"So why does Marui think Niou's stealing his snacks?" Aiko asks.

Jackal sighs. He has known Marui for almost the entirety of his life and he is hard pressed to find a memory of Marui that does not involve him over reacting or being a drama queen.

"I doubt he is. But let's just say that Niou is... interesting," Jackal says.

"Interesting?" Aiko says.

"_Interesting_."

.

"Watch the teeth," Niou says.

"Sorry," Yagyuu murmurs.

Yagyuu presses his weight against Niou, hands gripping the edge of the large desk at the front of the student council room so hard that his knuckles go white. Niou loops his arms around Yagyuu's shoulders and slows the pace, languidly moving his tongue and opening his mouth further. He rubs up and down Yagyuu's back, feeling the stiff tension in his muscles.

"Relax, guys don't bite," Niou says. "Unless you're into that and he's willing to."

"You use your tongue a lot," Yagyuu says.

"If you let me keep my piercing in, you'd see why." Niou smiles lazily, threads his fingers into Yagyuu's hair to mess it up because he knows that makes Yagyuu agitated, and nips at his jaw. "Less talking; more kissing."

Yagyuu pushes their lips back together and slides a hand slowly up the side of Niou's thigh. Yagyuu radiates heat like a cat and leaves traces of it everywhere he touches. His cologne is musky and strongest in the morning, like now, when he's still clean shaven and his glasses are free of dirt, and in the ten minutes after gym and before fifth period when they meet in the third floor boys' bathroom to make out.

Niou puts a leg on Yagyuu's hip and presses their groins together. Yagyuu has a one track mind when he kisses and while that may be okay with inexperienced girls, that won't cut it with him.

Niou manages to work a rhythm of friction between them that has Yagyuu making breathy noises of pleasure as they kiss. Niou teases Yagyuu's tongue into his mouth.

Yagyuu's hand slides between Niou's legs, his long fingers searching and groping for Niou's dick. As much as Niou would love to rub one out with Yagyuu in the student council room, he knows Yagyuu isn't up for that.

Niou reaches down and grabs hold of his wrist.

"Don't be a fucking tease. You grab my dick and we're not going to class, and we both know you're too good to miss class," Niou says.

They haven't done anything more than kiss. Using their tongues just happened last week and they haven't touched under clothes. That's a big jump to going beneath the belt and Niou suspects that Yagyuu isn't fully aware of what he'd be getting himself into.

"I am not a tease. Even if I was, is that wrong?"

Niou rubs his thumbs into Yagyuu's palm, then brings his hand up to his mouth and obscenely takes his middle finger into his mouth. He curls his tongue, longing for the press of familiar metal, which sits in a ziplock bag next to his math textbook. He bobs his head for several seconds, then lets go of Yagyuu's finger with purposeful, obscene _pop_.

"Being teased isn't fun," Niou says, leaning close to Yagyuu's mouth. "Unless you follow through."

"Maybe we should stop, then," Yagyuu says, cheeks flushed red.

"Agreed." Niou lies down on the large desk and arches his back until it cracks. Making out on a desk is hot, but it's a bitch on the back. "Just give me a minute."

Yagyuu adjusts his classes and clears his throat. Niou frowns and since Yagyuu is an obvious person and easy to read, he follows Yagyuu's line of sight to his exposed midriff where thin hair runs down into his pants. Niou puts his hands on the hem of his flimsy uniform shirt and curls it up just an inch.

"Do you want to look?" Niou asks.

"If you don't mind," Yagyuu says softly.

Niou smirks because it's been a long time since someone just wanted to _look_ at him and something about that makes him want to comply, maybe a little too eagerly.

He hikes his shirt up until it's bunched at his underarms and curves his body up to show his muscles and the exposed bones of his ribs and hips. Yagyuu looks like a deer in headlights.

"You can touch anywhere," Niou says, settling back down. He's shameless so he spreads his legs and lightly touches his chest, thumbing over his right nipple.

Yagyuu steps into Niou's spread legs and puts his hands on the curve in Niou's waist below his ribs, one large warm hand on each side. Niou tingles with heat when skin meets skin.

"You can move your hands, you know."

It amuses Niou that Yagyuu has the face of a child about to do something very, very wrong.

Yagyuu roams over Niou's torso, over skin stretched thin like he's all bone in some places and over warm, lean muscles at others. He rubs at the four symmetrical knobs jutting out of his hips, two on each side, then lingers over Niou's erect nipples and returns to them several times.

"If you like tits, you might want to try girls," Niou says when Yagyuu brushes them for the forth time. "Or drag queens. I know a great bar. You just need a fake ID."

"I've heard that some men like having their nipples played with and I was trying to see if that was true," Yagyuu says.

"Depends on the guy," Niou says. "For me, they feel good, but playing with them won't make me hard."

"How many people have you slept with?" Yagyuu asks bluntly.

"Depends on how you define sex. If you mean penetrative, then one. Anal things in general, two. Oral, four. Mutual orgasm, three." Niou sits up suddenly and grabs at Yagyuu's hips. He searches Yagyuu's face for a reaction that he can't find. "What? You're not going to call me a slut?"

"I asked you to fool around with me," Yagyuu says. "I have no room to talk."

"Fair point." Niou gives Yagyuu a long, lingering kiss before patting his ass. "Okay, back up so I can stand. I wanna go smoke."

"Marijuana?"

"Yeah, _pot_," Niou says because Yagyuu had the balls to ask about being fuck buddies, but can't say slang twelve year olds know. He jumps off the desk and grabs his bag as Yagyuu watches him. "Why?" Niou asks.

"Do you have enough for two?"

Niou tilts his head and stares. Mr. Student Council President, gay in the closet, trimmed and perfected down to his manicured nails, wants to smoke pot.

"I've always wondered what the hype was about," Yagyuu explains and he doesn't sound embarrassed.

"I'll come here after school's done."

"Here?" Yagyuu asks.

"We're not going to my house and I doubt your parents would like it if you brought someone like me home to smoke. Doing it in public is stupid for any number of reasons. At least I know where the cameras are here. So it's here or not at all."

Yagyuu adjusts his glasses. "Alright."

Niou shoves his hands into his pockets and leaves, stopping by the bathroom to run his headphones up the back of his shirt before going to class. He puts on Zero to Hero and zones out when the teacher comes in. Throughout the day, he manages to get a pack of poky, a juice carton, and some chocolate cake from the red head's bag when he isn't looking. Who the hell has cake in their bag? Not that he's complaining.

The teacher asks if he's paying attention and when Niou can perfectly recall what they were discussing, the teacher gets red in the face and turns around to continue the lecture. The red head watches him for awhile after that, blowing a few bubbles when the teacher's back is to them.

It's not a trick he learned to stay out of trouble. It's natural. If Niou sees what's written on the board, he'll remember it. His mother used to say he was a genius. Niou's never put a label on his intelligence, but if he had to, it would be genius.

The only interesting thing to happen happens is during lunch. A girl comes in and gets the red head. Niou doesn't look at girls sexually, but she's attractive enough. Her hips curve and her thighs are plump with muscle. Her stomach isn't flat but her breasts are larger, and it's probably the makeup on her face making her unusually appealing.

When they leave together, the red head's arm wrapped around her waist, everyone begins to whisper. Niou can't hear what they say over his music, but he recognizes the look well enough. It's the same look he gets from self absorbed, self righteous assholes.

_So the red head is a slut_, Niou thinks.

At the end of the day, Niou grabs his bag and heads downstairs. He stops in the bathroom and puts in his earrings, filling the holes in his left and right ears with various pieces of metal, wood and plastic of different gauges and styles. He puts his ball back into his tongue, thinking of how much he's going to screw with Yagyuu now, then the vertical stud in his right eyebrow.

He's walking out of the bathroom when he bumps into someone. He fixes them a blank look that makes most people recoil in horror, especially with the piercings. This guy smiles like rays of sunshine are coming out of his ass.

"Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," the guy says. Niou looks the guy up and down and decides that he would make a killer drag queen. Stick him in heels and a corset and he could take a stage—or a pole, if he's strong enough.

"It's fine," Niou says.

"Are you Niou, by chance? I'm Yukimura Seiichi. Yagyuu mentioned you."

"Oh?"

"Nothing bad. Just that you were the new student," Yukimura says. "I'm actually having a party next week. My friend's band will be playing. You should come."

"I'm not a party person."

"There's alcohol."

"I don't drink."

_I just smoke. _

"Well, you should still come. I'll be fun," Yukimura says. "Listen, I need to run. I'll give you my number and address the next time we run into each other. Or I'll just tell Yagyuu to give it to you."

Yukimura waves good-bye, still wearing that damnable smile, and walks away.

_I need to smoke right fucking now, _Niou thinks. It's not that people like Yukimura piss him off, it's that they make him anxious. There are very few people who he can't get a proper read on and he doesn't like it when he meets one of them.

Yagyuu isn't there when he arrives so he hops up onto the large desk at the front, flicking his cheap lighter on and off, and nodding his head to his music.

Niou is beginning to debate whether Yagyuu is going to show or not when the door opens and he walks in.

"About time," Niou says. "I thought you were going to pussy out."

"I had to take care of some things with the vice-president and—"

"I don't care. Lock the door." Yagyuu does as he's told, then goes to open the windows. "Don't," Niou says. "We're on the first floor and sports teams sometimes run around the school. We'll air out the room after we're done."

Yagyuu returns to stand in front of Niou, who spreads his legs and invites Yagyuu closer.

"So how—?" Yagyuu questions.

"Just watch."

Niou holds one end of the joint between his lips and burns the end, breathing in and breathing out smoke.

He wraps his fingers into the hair at the back of Yagyuu's neck and leans forward, the joint hanging precariously from his lips. Yagyuu is watching him like a hawk. It's kind of cute how docile Yagyuu can be at times like this.

Niou has been smoking long enough to talk clearly with a joint in his mouth and says, "Put it in your mouth and suck."

"It's lit," Yagyuu says.

"Just do it," Niou says. "Don't you trust me?"

"No."

"That's probably the right choice." Niou smirks around the joint, then suddenly becomes serious. "I don't make anyone do anything and I won't start by making you do this."

"I know. I want to. Bu let me do it by myself first."

Niou takes another deep breath in and passes the joint to Yagyuu. The smoke seems to roll out of Niou's mouth like it's the most natural thing in the world. It settles between them, reeking and burning Yagyuu's nostrils.

"What do I do?" Yagyuu asks.

"Put it between your lips and inhale."

The joint is smoother than Yagyuu expected and not nearly as heavy as it looks. It tastes strange on his lips when he finally puts it into his mouth.

He takes a deep breath, inhaling smoke into his lungs, and tries to hold it but ends up coughing into his hand and choking for air. His mouth seems to fill thick cottony spit, or maybe that's the smell making him feel that.

"Don't take in so much," Niou says, taking the joint from Yagyuu and putting it into his mouth. His thumb rubs gentle, reassuring circles into Yagyuu's neck. "Take the tip in your mouth and suck."

Yagyuu complies this time, leaning forward as slouches forward to meet him. He stares into Niou's eyes and Niou stares back, his blue eyes softer than usual, comforting almost, like they had been the first time they kissed.

He sucks in the smoke as Niou blows until his lungs are full and this time he isn't choking and he can feel it all over his body and he's pulling back to blow smoke into Niou's face.

Niou keeps one hand on the back of Yagyuu's head and uses the other to move the joint in and out of his mouth. He drags his lips against Yagyuu's when he moves the joint, then smirks when he puts it back to his lips. Yagyuu rubs up and down Niou's boney sides as his mind succumbs to the high.

Niou breaths in a lungful of smoke, then takes the joint out of his mouth and presses his open mouth to Yagyuu's, letting Yagyuu suck the smoke out of his mouth. Niou smiles and keeps his lips on Yagyuu's, kissing him, not letting him breath, forcing the smoke and lack of air to cloud his mind until it feels like TV static.

They part for seconds then Yagyuu is kissing him again, rough and hard, like he's trying to devour Niou's lips. Niou tugs gently on Yagyuu's hair, pulling him back, calming him down. Yagyuu's hands are all over his body, inching up the back of his shirt, crawling towards his groin, rubbing and palming at his nipples.

When Yagyuu doesn't let up, Niou tugs on his hair a little too hard, yanking his head back and sucking hard under his jaw. Niou's careful not to leave a mark.

"There's no rush," Niou says, taking another drag and blowing the smoke up into the air in a series of rings. "We've got plenty of time."

.

It's Kirihara's idea to get Yukimura to do the art for Zero to Hero's second album. Kirihara's with Urayama and Oyama at the time and the idea runs through the band like it's a line from a game of telephone. Jackal hears that Yukimura has already agreed to do the art, Kato hears that Yukimura has completed the art, and Marui hears that Yukimura won't do it.

Marui doesn't know how the hell that happened, but it needs to be cleared up because at this point, no one knows what's going on. No one is even sure if Yukimura has heard about the idea.

After Kirihara has blazed past on his skateboard and nearly everyone has left the school for the day, Marui, Jackal, Urayama and Oyama wander the halls. They have to wait for Kato to show up so they can go talk to Yukimura in the art studio. Having one of their band members attend another school can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, especially when they all insist on doing band-related business together or not at all.

"I want to go into all the bathrooms and write 'fuck' and 'shit' everywhere," Marui says as they walk through the first floor.

"Then do it," Jackal says.

"But it sounds boring now that I've said it out loud," Marui says. He blows a large bubble and looks around, thinking of things to do until Kato shows up.

"We could go find a snack machine and get juice," Urayama says. Marui gives him a strange look and he shrugs innocently. "I just really want juice."

"I can break into the machine on the second floor so you don't need to use money," Marui says. Kirihara taught him last year during detention.

"I can help," Jackal says.

They go up to the second floor and pull the drink machine near the stairway away from the wall. With a bit of force and a pair of scissors they stole from the teacher's lounge down the hall, they pry open the loose back hatch and reach inside to get their prizes.

"Yay! Juice," Urayama says. He takes a sip and begins to sing, "_Wanta Fanta? Don't you wanta, wanta Fanta_?"

"You are _not_ getting that stuck in my head again," Oyama grumbles.

Jackal pushes the machine back into place so no one knows. Marui wrinkles his nose at the smell of smoke and checks the machine.

"What's wrong?" Oyama asks.

"Don't you smell that?" Marui asks. "Jackal, did you fuck up the machine when you busted it open?"

"No way," Jackal says. "I did exactly what Kirihara does."

"I smell it too," Urayama says. "Smells like smoke."

The band follows the smell to the stairway and back down to the first floor. They in front of the student council room and Marui rattles the locked doorknob. He recognizes the distinctive smell of pot smoke.

"I think Yagyuu's getting high," Marui says. "Or Nishimura."

"What? No way," Jackal says.

"It's coming from in there," Urayama says.

"Shiita's right," Oyama says. "And it smells like pot."

Marui wants to ask how Oyama knows what pot smells like, but doesn't because now Jackal is trying to open the door and Marui can hear fumbling on the other side. Over Yagyuu's swearing and questions, muffled by the door and addressed to someone else in the room, Marui hear's a deep, sultry laugh that goes straight to his groin.

As a singer, he appreciates voices and that voice belongs to a god.

"Just a moment," Yagyuu says.

"What the fuck," Jackal says, looking at his bandmates.

The door opens and Yagyuu stands in the doorway, his hair disheveled from its usual perfection. The cheap fluorescent lights on the ceiling shine through lingering smoke. Sitting on the large desk at the front of the room is Niou, leaning back on his hands, head titled to look at them.

"Do you need something?" Yagyuu asks.

"We can smell the smoke from upstairs," Jackal says. "It's going up the stairwell."

"Opps," Niou says, laughing._ Fuck me_, Marui thinks after hearing that godlike voice come out of Niou's mouth. "My bad."

"This is not funny," Yagyuu says, but he's smiling and no one is taking him seriously right now because he is high as fuck.

"Guys!" Kato shouts from down the hall.

"This keeps getting better and better," Jackal says, trying very hard not to laugh.

Kato runs up to them and says, "I texted you that I got here. What the fuck are you doing at the student council room with Glasses?"

"Wait for it," Marui says.

"Why the hell does it smell like pot?" Kato asks. She smells the smoke and looks closely at Yagyuu, at his pupils, at the lack of tension in his shoulders. "Holy fuck balls," Kato says, laughing. "Glasses got _baked_."

"My name is Yagyuu. It's not Glasses."

"No, you're right. Glasses isn't your name anymore. It's Stoner Glasses." Kato smiles broadly and pats Yagyuu on the back with enough force to knock him off balance. "Good for you, Stoner Glasses. You needed to get that stick out of your ass."

"I don't have a stick up my ass," Yagyuu says.

"Yeah, you do," Niou says.

Kato loses it and bends over laughing, curling in on herself. Her voice is low for a girl's and is pleasant to listen to, even when she's laughing so hard she snorts, like right now. She's still wearing her new school's uniform with the skirt hiked up scandalously high and the blouse undone one button too many.

Kato always has to play the rebel.

"Oh boy. I needed that." She wipes the tears from her eyes, smudging her makeup. She takes a better look at the scene and asks, "Are you the new kid with the weird ass hair?You're cuter than what people have been telling me."

_I told you he was hot_, Marui thinks. _And that was before I saw him with his piercings. _

"Trust me, you're not my type," Niou says, which makes Yagyuu laugh.

"How come it doesn't surprise me that you smoke pot?" Marui asks, looking at Niou.

"Maybe it's my charming smile and can-do attitude," Niou replies sarcastically.

Niou gets off the desk, grabbing his bag, then leans into Yagyuu's ear to say something. Yagyuu nods and Niou walks off, shoving earbuds into his ears. When he walks past, Marui can hear the music blaring and he recognizes the chords he spent hours working on with Oyama, the drum beat Kato spent days practicing, the lyrics he scribbled on used napkins.

"Nice taste in music," Marui says.

Niou ignores him and keeps walking.

"You should open the windows and leave before anyone comes by," Oyama says. "We should get out of here too."

"Yeah, where's Girly?" Kato asks, meaning Yukimura. "I went to the art studio and he wasn't there."

"Did anyone tell Yukimura we needed to talk to him?" Jackal asks.

"I thought Marui texted him," Kato says.

"I thought Jackal was going to," Marui says.

"I thought Urayama and Oyama talked to him," Jackal says.

"We thought you guys talked to him," Urayama says.

Marui sighs and blows a bubble. Sometimes he wonders if the band needs to get their shit together.


	3. Chapter 3

**Warning: m/f smut.**

* * *

**Chapter 3.**

There is a small portion of the Rikkaidai student body which is inconceivably wealthy; Yukimura is part of that small portion. He is, as far as the other students are concerned, untouchable. His parents are part of the school board and even the teachers are afraid to punish him out of fear of being fired. And, for some reason that no one can figure out, the police have never shown up to his house during a party despite the overwhelming amount of people who attend and the volume of the music.

Yukimura tries not to take advantage of this, but he does from time to time. No one's perfect all the time.

By the time Yanagi calls the band to come over and set up, the entire first floor of Yukimura's house has been transformed with string lights, coolers of beer, and large bowls of stoner munchies. Their instruments and speakers sit in large black cases that Yanagi had moved from Marui's house earlier that morning.

"There's food in the kitchen for you guys," Yukimura says when he lets them in. "The pizza is showing up at nine thirty. People will begin to show up at ten. No drinking until after you've played."

"Damn, Girly, who do your parents keep killing?" Kato asks as Yukimura walks them through his house. "Did your kitchen get redone _again_?"

"My parents don't kill people," Yukimura sighs.

"Where are your parents anyways?" Jackal asks.

"On a business trip up north," Yukimura says. "It's also their twentieth anniversary. They've been gone the whole week and my sister is spending the weekend with a friend."

Sanada and Yanagi are sitting in the large living room, cleared of all furniture except for a few chairs and sofas which are pressed up against the walls. The black boxes with their instruments are in the corner.

"Is everything here?" Oyama asks, going for his guitar case.

"Yes, I checked when it arrived," Yanagi says. "Once you have your instruments set up, I want to connect the speakers to my laptop so I can play music."

"That's fine," Marui says. "We'll need duct tape to tape down the wires."

"I'll bring some down. And before you ask, I locked the doors and windows along that wall so no one can get behind your instruments and ruin anything," Yukimura says. "Thanks again for playing tonight."

"No problem," Jackal says. "We love playing at your house. We don't have to worry about the volume."

Yukimura laughs softly and leaves with Sanada and Yanagi to finish setting up. When they finish, they all dick around until the party is supposed to start. They pester Kirihara, who isn't coming because he's grounded for leaving his skateboard in the hallway at home. The only other person from their usual group that isn't there is Yagyuu, who sends Yukimura a text saying he'll be there later with Niou.

_Niou?_ Yukimura replies back, not mentioning Yagyuu's text to his friends.

_Yes. I talked to him and he agreed to come.  
Is that alright?_

_Of course!_

.

If there's one thing Yukimura Seiichi knows how to do better than anyone else, it's how to throw an overrated, cliché high school party.

The house is packed. The music is obnoxious and loud, vibrating through their bodies and into their bones. Girls dance in clusters or grind against their boyfriends, and occasionally two people will sneak into an empty hallway or attempt to enter the bathroom at the same time without anyone noticing. Beers cans are passed like currency and red solo cups are held high in the air by overly sexual dancers.

Yukimura circles the first floor with Sanada and Yanagi, offering drinks and playing host. He locks away car keys in the closet and makes sure that everyone who walks through the front door knows the rules of a Yukimura party: no one drives home, anyone can spend the night, and he will only unlock a bedroom if he knows both people entering are sober and consenting.

Marui finds himself surrounded by people he doesn't know and pressed up close to Ren, his hands just above the waist of her tight black skirt that rides up higher and higher with each jump and wiggle. He can see her red bra under her lacy top and feel the brush of her breasts against his chest as she moves.

Ren dances with wild abandonment, singing along to the lyrics with a stupid smile, dancing with her entire body so that her hair moves with her. Her confidence is contagious and Marui finds himself matching her move for move. He has no idea what he's doing and he feels like a fool. Ren laughs at him and presses closer as she sings in his face.

Ren's friends laugh at her enthusiasm and she retorts by grinding up against Marui, who doesn't mind in the slightest. Her friends go quiet when they see how close Ren is to Marui and if looks could kill, Marui would be dead.

He knows a lot of Ren's friends don't approve of their relationship, but seeing them look at him like he's the root of all evil makes it a little more obvious. It also makes him fear for his safety because girls are vicious when protecting their friends.

"Hey, maybe I should go find Jackal or something," Marui says. "You came here with them and I don't want to butt in."

"I don't see why their opinions bother you, but whatever. They're planning on leaving around one," Ren says. She presses closer, gets up on her toes and drags her lipstick coated lips against his. "Dance with me after."

"Okay."

He knows what he does with Ren isn't exactly normal, even if it is consensual and kept private, and people can be cruel. He knows what people call her, call him, and tries to minimize that as much as possible for her sake.

He walks around the dancing crowd and into another room where the alcohol is, passing by Kato who is dancing with old friends she hasn't seen in forever. Her jeans are ripped up and her tank top has massive holes under her arms that dip down to her waist and show her bra. A guy comes up to her and Marui recognizes her _fuck off_ face. He waits until the guy is gone, then keeps walking.

He changes rooms and finds Oyama and Urayama playing beer bong on a cleared off table.

"Hey, Yukimura said no drinking," Marui says. "Wait. Since when do you two drink?"

"I'm using mountain dew," Urayama says.

"And I'm using pixie stixes," Oyama says.

Marui laughs at the idea, but takes over when Urayama needs to go to the bathroom and he has to admit that it's better than regular beer pong. After a few rounds, he feels like he's going to die of a sugar overdose but at the same time, he's too hyped up to care.

Urayama comes back from the bathroom, puts a hand on Marui's shoulder, and he nearly jumps through the roof.

"Can't hold your sugar?" Urayama laughs.

"Apparently not," Marui says.

"By the way, I bumped into Yukimura-senpai and he wants us to play in half an hour. I don't think Kato and Jackal know."

Marui trades off places with Urayama so he can find the others. He travels between rooms until he finds Jackal with his girlfriend Aiko and a group of friends. He taps Jackal on the shoulder, tells him they're on soon, then goes to find Kato, who isn't with her old friends anymore.

He finally finds her redoing her makeup in one of the bathrooms on the second floor.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," she says when he walks in through the open door. "We're on in ten minutes. Hat found me and told me."

"Fuck. I just spent twenty minutes looking for you. I need to warm up."

"Do it in here," she says. "The acoustics are good in bathrooms, right?"

Marui isn't sure how he expected the night to go, but he wasn't planning on doing vocal exercises in Yukimura's bathroom while Kato does her mascara. But it happens so he accepts it and rolls with it.

They go downstairs together, joining the rest of the band at their battle stations in front of the crowd—Urayama and Oyama with their guitars, Jackal at his bass, Kato at her drums, and Marui at the front with a mic.

Marui runs through lyrics in his head and stops himself from chewing on his cheek. He rechecks his microphone's height and where the cords are on the floor, then moves aside for Yukimura. Yanagi pauses the music and the half-drunk crowd turns around to see what's the matter.

"Just wait a moment and we'll have music again. The instruments sitting at the front of the room are finally going to go to use," Yukimura says. "Please welcome the best band ever, and I mean that literally, Zero to Hero!"

Marui takes back his microphone and instead of talking, they go straight into a song. He's never been good at introducing his band and why bother when their music can introduce them just as well as words?

Oyama, Urayama and Jackal start into one of their old songs, followed by the bass of Kato's drums, then Marui comes in, his lips pressed closed to the microphone where his hands are wrapped tightly. He sings his entire body, every muscle in his face moving as he sings.

"_I took a step back as the room was filling up  
And I was packed against these people who were tossing up a strong vibe.  
Now the door's locked  
And the shower's on  
And I realize I don't recognize anyone,  
But I don't mind."_

For the first time that night, Marui sees him. Niou is standing against the back wall with Yagyuu and the two are leaning into each other as they talk. Niou looks at the stage, at Marui, even as he talks to Yagyuu. Marui stares back as he goes through the chorus and breaks into the next verse, dancing to the beat with his shoulders and hips.

"_Well now everybody's losing control!  
Intoxicated circulation...  
Just try and sit back, get my palette wet,  
Getting mentally prepared for the consequences  
And you know why...  
Because that knock at the door  
Calls the crowd to quiet.  
The neighbors have complained damn near every night."_

He keeps eye contact with Niou as Oyama and he slip into the chorus again, keeps it when he wants nothing more than to close his eyes with a long _whoa_, keeps it when he smiles like an idiot as he sings. He only breaks it when the song ends and he needs to look at his bandmates to decide the next song. Even then, it takes a great deal of effort to look away from those eyes.

Marui avoids looking at the back where Niou and Yagyuu linger because he's a performer and he can't spend the entire night staring down the new kid. He tugs at his t-shirt, clinging to his flushed skin and sweat, and pushes his hair out of his face. He talks and jokes between songs, controlling the mood and energy of crowd.

He loves the sting of sweat in his eyes. He loves the way people dance to his music, not caring how they look to anyone else. He loves the way he can see people like Yukimura singing along to the lyrics. He loves the burn in his thighs from jumping too much and the tightness in his hands from gripping the microphone.

He's on a high and he loves it.

They play through the songs on their old album that are upbeat, then two songs from the new album that they haven't played in public before, and finish off with a series of covers and audience requests. For the requests, they make chords and rhythms on the fly and Marui sometimes stumbles over the lyrics, but it's fun and the audience is laughing along with them when Marui sings, "_La-la-la, I don't know the fucking words_."

Once they finish their last song, the first thing Marui does after he bows overdramatically is chug a bottle of water and get a piece of gum. Jackal goes to find his girlfriend, who has to get on her tip toes to kiss him even after he bends down. Urayama sucks at the fingers he holds his pick in and Oyama opens a new bag of sour gummy worms. Kato cracks almost every bone in her hands and it's disgusting, but they're still riding their highs and don't care.

"The new songs sounded great," Yanagi says.

"I liked them too," Yukimura says. "I think it gave me the inspiration I needed for your album art."

"It was good," Sanada says.

"Whoa, we got Hat's approval," Kato says. "I guess that means we did kick major ass."

"Will you stop calling me that?" Sanada asks.

"_Never_," Kato says with an mischievous grin. Marui watches uncomfortably as the two hold the other's eyes for one second too long for friendly banter.

"We'll see you later," Yukimura says with a pleasant smile. "We need to go cut some people off. If you need any help packing up, let us know."

Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi walk away, leaving the band to pack up.

"Kato, give me your hairband," Marui says and Kato complies, taking hers off. His sweaty hair is matted to his forehead and he doesn't care how ridiculous that lacy thing will look on him so long as it gets his hair out of his eyes.

It takes nearly an hour to put their instruments away without distributing the speakers connected to Yanagi's laptop. They have to deal with people coming up and asking about the band because, as far as Marui can tell, this is the first time half the people here have heard them. The other half still comes up and asks about their new album.

Marui eats up the attention until Kato calls him a whore and hits him with her drumsticks.

A little part of Marui wishes that Niou would come over and talk to him about his music, but that doesn't happen. Once they finish packing up their instruments, Urayama and Oyama leave together, and Jackal all but runs to find Aiko again so they can dance until Yanagi shuts off the music.

Marui pops a piece of gum into his mouth and circles the living room for Ren or someone else he knows. He spots Jackal and Aiko together, dancing without touching and being so cute it makes Marui want to puke. He walks by a game of beer pong and wishes Urayama and Oyama were there to play with mountain dew and and pixie stixes.

He stops walking when he feels a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't like the way some guys are eyeing me," Kato says. "Come with me while I smoke."

Marui slips his hands into his pockets and follows her out onto the back patio where there's a group of smokers to the right near a porch lamp. He's half tempted to jump into the open pool even though it's not heated and he would die of hypothermia in record time. He settles for looking at the lights reflecting on the water.

They lean against the wall as Kato lights up a cigarette.

"Those things will kill you," he says.

"I know," she says.

Marui feels like he should say something else, like he doesn't want her to die, but he did that enough in the past and doesn't feel like bringing that up again.

"I can beat up the guys who were eyeing you," he offers after a minute of silence.

"Nah," she says. "But seriously, fuck having tits."

Marui laughs and she joins in. They go silent when they hear the door slide open and shut as someone else walks outside. Marui isn't expecting anyone in particular, but he's still surprised when he looks and sees Niou.

"Nice hairband," Niou says, smirking. He leans against the wall near Marui.

"Thanks. I was worried it wouldn't match my skin tone," Marui replies.

Kato reaches into her pocket and holds out her packet of cheap cigarettes to Niou, who says, "I don't smoke."

"Really?" Marui says. "Because I'm pretty sure I caught you getting high with Yagyuu earlier this week."

"I don't smokecigarettes," Niou corrects.

Kato shrugs, puts the pack back into her pocket, and leans back against the wall. She blows out a puff of smoke, seems to realize something, then looks at Niou again.

"Wait," she says, her eyebrows scrunched together, "if you don't smoke, why'd you come out here?"

"Do I need a reason?"

"Fine, be an antisocial ass when a hot girl is talking to you." Kato bends her knee to stamp her cigarette out on the sole of her shoe. She looks at Marui and says, "I'm gonna bail. I have big plans that involve sleeping until noon and eating microwave ramen tomorrow."

"Want me to walk you home?" Marui asks.

"Some girls I used to hang out with are going soon, so I'll go with them. I'll call you when I get home."

Marui reaches up and takes off the hairband, tossing it to her before she goes back inside.

Niou chuckles deeply and Marui turns on him.

"What?" Marui asks.

"Your hair," Niou says. "It's all stuck up."

Marui shoves his fingers through his hair, which has dried but is now knotted and gross, and tries to flatten it back into place. He blows a bubble, frustrated, and sinks down to sit. He's a little more than surprised when Niou slides down to sit next to him.

"Why did you come out here?" Marui asks curiously. "To smoke pot?"

"No," Niou says. "And do you know how many people are in there?"

"Like, fifty."

"Sixty two."

"You counted all those people? How? Why?"

Niou folds his arms across his knees and sets his chin on them. He looks at Marui, who is just realizing how big and blue Niou's eyes are, and clicks his tongue.

"You ask too many questions," Niou says.

"Did you like the new songs?" Marui asks, grinning. Niou rolls his eyes. "We're recording in a few weeks."

"They were decent."

"No, they were kick ass and you know it."

For some reason, Niou smirks. Marui blows and pops a bubble.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Niou asks. Marui doesn't understand and it must show on his face because Niou says, "I listen to your music practically nonstop during school. I walked right by you and I know you heard it because you made a smart ass comment, but you didn't say it was your band."

"I don't know," Marui says and he really doesn't. "I like messing with people sometimes."

Niou laughs and it goes straight to Marui's groin. That hasn't happened since he heard Oyama sing for the first time after his voice dropped and leveled out.

"You listen to us practically nonstop?" Marui asks with a shit eating grin.

"You're an ass."

"I know. But _nonstop_?"

"That's it. I'm leaving." Niou grins when he stands up, dusts off his pants, and goes back inside. Niou is in tight, colored pants and Marui's eyes linger on his slim hips a little longer than he should.

Marui cools his head, then goes inside. He doesn't see Niou, or Yagyuu, or anyone from his band, but he does see Ren sitting near the band equipment. She has her legs crossed and sips from a can of coke, waving when she spots him.

"Hey there, stranger," she says. "You sounded good tonight. I liked the new songs. Are they going on the new album?"

"Yeah, they made the cut. We're recording the week after next," Marui says. "So I'm really confused right now and need to blow off some steam."

"Well, I know something that could be blown," she says with a sultry smile.

"Have you been drinking?" he asks, completely serious.

"Didn't drink just so we could. Have you?"

"No."

"Perfect. I have a condom and"—Ren reaches into her purse and pulls out something—"a key. Got it from Yukimura after your show. Guest bedroom, second door on the right, giant bed."

Marui swallows his gum. He takes her by the hand and they go up the stairs, stopping more than once to press the other against the wall and kiss. He feels her breasts press up against his chest, slides his hands down to her hips and pull her closer, and sucks at her neck just under her jaw to make her moan. She tangles her hands into his hair and presses her tongue into his mouth.

Marui can't remember the sound of Niou's voice when he hears the click of the lock, can't picture his big blue eyes when Ren pushes him down on the bed and takes off her shirt, can't think of anything else other than her. Her body is familiar and hot, and he feels like an addict in need of a hit when he touches her.

She crawls on top of him, her hair falling around their heads as she kisses him slowly, like they hadn't just run up the stairs like giggling, horny idiots. Ren is always slow in bed. Her touches linger and tease just the right amount of time to drive Marui insane.

Her tongue is soft and sure, and she pulls it back seconds after it touches his. He moans, wanting more.

"Patience, patience," she murmurs.

He reaches down with one hand and digs his fingers into the muscles of her thigh. He drags his hand up, pulling her skirt up further and further, and moves to cup his palm against the heat between her legs. Her breath hitches when his hand begins to move up and down against her underwear, slowly, with pressure applied just right to make her wet.

"Bunta," she whispers, rolling her hips into his hand.

Her lips drag down to his neck and her hands slide up under his shirt, pushing it up and up until she's tugging it off. Marui moves his hand from between her legs to her back, running up her spine towards the clasp of her bra. She arches down against his chest, her lips curving against his as she smiles. He runs along the back of her bra but can't find the clasp.

"I told you," she says, sitting up, "_patience_."

He stares at her, watching with rapt interest as she reaches between her breasts to undo the clasp of her bra. Her breasts fall down against her chest and Marui makes a pathetic noise at the sight.

Marui sits up, holding her still by wrapping an arm around her waist. Her breasts are soft under his hand and warm under his lips, and he strokes and kisses them until Ren is breathless and flushed. When she says his name, he finally curls his tongue against her nipple and moves a hand down to hook into her skirt.

She curls her hand around the back of his neck, playing with the hair there, and curls forward until Marui falls onto his back. She crawls down his chest, kissing and dragging her nails in all the right places, her breasts pressing and tugging against his skin when she moves. She puts her mouth on the bulge in his jeans.

"Ren," he says. "Fuck."

"Take them off," she says, tugging at the waist of his pants. His concentration is split between his belt and the way she crawls on all fours to the edge of the bed. Her skirt is bunched up, revealing her underwear, tight and wet in all the right places.

It takes forever to kick off his pants and boxers and reach down to yank off his socks. He can feel himself getting harder at the sight of Ren bending over the bed. He wraps his hand around his cock and moans, his eyes closing and toes curling.

Ren crawls back onto the bed once she has the condom from her purse. She watches him touch himself and goes between his legs, standing on her knees. She takes off her skirt, moves up over him to slide her skin against his, kisses him without teasing. He tangles his hands in her hair, moaning into her mouth.

"Let me touch you," he says, breathless. He fingers at the waist of her underwear. "I want to make you come."

"Later," she says. She gives him a parting kiss before moving between his legs. She opens the condom and easily rolls it onto his length. She works her hand over him, smiling at his flushed face and erratic breathing.

"Ren, fuck,_ fuck_—"

She dips her head, taking him into her mouth, and he loses track of everything.

* * *

**A/N: The song lyrics from from "Neighbors" by The Academy Is. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4.**

Kirihara hopes off the train and takes his skateboard out of his backpack. Once he gets above ground, he rolls his skateboard along the ground and jumps on at the perfect time, swerving in and out of the crowds. He keeps his hands in his pockets, only removing them to flip off someone who yells at him even though he totally wasn't going to hit them.

_I'm not a dumb ass punk who just picked up a skateboard for shits and giggles_, he thinks bitterly. _I know what I'm doing, fuckwad._

He turns a corner, approaching a set of descending stairs, and kicks up into the air to catch the rails. He goes down with a smooth nose-grind and meets the ground without stumbling. He sees a young kid staring, their mother horrified, and he flashes them a peace sign and a large smile before continuing down the street.

There's a skatepark that is the exact midpoint between his, Hiyoshi and Zaizen's houses. It's dirty and rundown, but it has a half-pipe and a large shallow bowl, plus a few benches of questionable integrity and lines of rails. Bumps of smooth, curved cement are scattered throughout the park and the steps are good for street skating. The brick walls that surround the place are covered in graffiti that changes every few days. At night, after the lights have flicked on, the police patrol to try and catch kids doing drugs down in the bowl; Hiyoshi says it's ironic but Kirihara doesn't get it. It's not the nicest of places, but it feels like a second home to Kirihara.

He jumps off the skateboards and catches it in his hands when he comes to the flight of ascending stairs that leads to the skatepark. He jogs up the stairs and scans the area for his friends. He spots them by the vending machines in tight pants, bright tennis shoes, and oversized hoodies.

"You're late," Hiyoshi says.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Kirihara says with a roll of his eyes. "I overslept and missed the train so I had to wait around for the next one."

"Shut up and skate."

Kirihara grins when Hiyoshi tosses his skateboard onto the ground and jumps on, heading for the bowl with the expression of a calm veteran. Hiyoshi's been skating since junior high and his form can be strange at times, but he's as good, usually better, than anyone else Kirihara knows.

"Come on," Zaizen says, moving past Kirihara on his skateboard and dipping into the bowl. Zaizen's been skating since some kids at his school coerced him into it, but he learned quickly like a skating genius. Kirihara met him last year at a street skating tournament where they tied for first.

Kirihara tosses his backpack next to their stuff and hops back on his board to follow them into the bowl. He smiles as he goes down with gravity, curving back up on the other side with the slope of the walls. The grip on the deck is rough on his hand, but he ignores that sharp sting, like a nasty rug burn, and comes back down without faltering.

Hiyoshi carves along the curve of the bowl and looks over his shoulder at Kirihara with a challenging smirk before disappearing into the tunnel.

Kirihara picks up speed and follows him inside, skating through the curved enclosure. His muscles have long since memorized the movements and turns necessary to get him through. He comes up next to Hiyoshi on the other side, falling into pace next to him.

"Bet I can get higher," Kirihara says.

"Doubt it," Hiyoshi says.

They grin and cut across in front of the other, bending their knees as they go up the opposite sides of the bowl and catch air. They come back down the bowl's slope at the same time and nearly crash into each other at the bottom, each playing chicken to see who'll back off first but neither does and—

_Shit, he's gonna hit me_, Kirihara thinks. He can see the same sense of panic in Hiyoshi's eyes. Then suddenly, they know what to do. They both slow enough to reach for the other. Kirihara grabs onto Hiyoshi's elbow and Hiyoshi grabs Kirihara's shoulder to steady them back into a straight path along the bottom.

"Not bad for a rich brat," Kirihara says.

"I'd say the same about an idiot," Hiyoshi says.

Kirihara holds out his fist and Hiyoshi knocks it with his own.

There's something about pulling off a trick, even if it is damnably stupid like they one they just did. Kirihara likes the tricks with Hiyoshi, the tricks when they don't talk about what they're going to do and just seem to know what the other is thinking.

The three of them have known each other for years, having met through street skating tournaments and word of mouth, but the nonverbal communication is new. It's not perfect and has led to a few very nasty cuts and a concussion or two, but it's exciting. It's something new to master after all this time of doing the same old flips and jumps.

Out of nowhere, Zaizen appears, coming from the opposite direction. He skates straight between them with a switch stance, riding goofy foot and ducking under their fist bump.

"Stop flirting," Zaizen says. "You two are like an old married couple who want to kill each other."

Kirihara sticks out his tongue and his middle finger, and Hiyoshi rolls his eyes.

"Do it again?" Kirihara asks.

"Definitely," Hiyoshi says.

"I'm not cleaning up your blood when you crash into each other," Zaizen says. "I looked like I'd killed someone last time."

"We're not going to crash into each other," Kirihara shouts before following Hiyoshi into the tunnel.

They crash into each other multiple times and fall even more, but the physical damage is minimal compared to what they used to get as amateurs. There's only scrapped hands and unformed bruises to show for their mistakes. Their pride and ego are untouched.

They would probably still be trying to pull that stunt if Zaizen didn't convince them to get out of the bowl so some other kids could go in without fear of colliding with Kirihara and Hiyoshi. They eat lunch from the vending machines, trading small bags of chips and boxes of sweets for funions and nasty sports drinks. When they're done eating, they go right back to their boards.

They grind against the stairs, go up and down the rails countless times and count the number of times they fall like it's a competition, and ride over the half-spheres like they're waves. They keep skating after the cheap lights flick on when it turns dark and they're the only ones left. It's not easy for them to get together often so when they find a day that they can, they milk it for all it's worth.

Zaizen is the first to quit and goes to add new graffiti to the brick walls. He shakes a can of his signature blue spray paint and goes to work while Hiyoshi and Kirihara keep skating.

They grab their helmets and take turns on the half pipe, switching back and forth seamlessly when they don't mess up and fall. But soon even they get too tired to carry on and sit on the deck of the half pipe with their knees at the lip, their legs dangling down.

"I won," Kirihara says.

"Won what?" Hiyoshi asks.

"I don't know, but I won."

Hiyoshi laughs easily and falls onto his back. Kirihara look down at him and stares at his exposed skin above the waist of his pants. Hiyoshi is built in ways that make girls do double takes. It's not from skateboarding, at least not all of it. Most of it's from his work in martial arts.

_Why am I looking? _Kirihara thinks, his face going red.

He immediately looks away and says, "I'm hungry. Let's go get burgers."

"The diner down the street is closed by now, but McDonalds should still be open," Hiyoshi says.

"Zaizen!" Kirihara shouts. "We're going to get food."

"Thank god," Zaizen mutters. "I'm starving."

Hiyoshi jumps up and Kirihara finds himself staring for far too long.

.

Kirihara wakes up with damp boxers, hot and sweaty despite having kicked his sheets off. He reaches down under the fabric of his underwear, and feels his limp cock and the remains of half-dry semen in his pubic hair. He adjusts himself and takes his hand out before his brain gets any more dumb ideas, like touching himself while thinking about his best friend. His _male_ best friend.

What is he, fourteen again? It hadn't even been that erotic of a scene compared to what he used to dream about during puberty. There were lips, red from kissing, and hands, roaming and reaching into pants, and sighs, breath hot against slick skin. He had felt skin, tan skin,_ Hiyoshi's_ skin.

"Fuck me," he swears.

He pushes the incident into the back of his mind and heads to school, hoping on his skateboard after exiting the train. It's easy to forget something as weird and utterly ridiculous as that dream when he remembers he has a test in English, or when he sees his ex-girlfriend grimace at the sight of him, and it's especially easy when he skates straight into the student council vice-president.

"How many times have I told you not to ride that stupid thing on school property!" Nishimura shouts.

Kirihara scrambles to his feet and grips his skateboard protectively. "I'm sorry. I have a lot on my mind—"

He remembers how hot Hiyoshi's skin had been in his dream, how Hiyoshi had dragged his tongue over his skin, and how Hiyoshi had moaned when Kirihara fumbled with his dick. What's wrong with him?

"Are you blushing?" Nishimura asks. "Never mind. We're going to the student council room. I'm having Yagyuu lock that damn thing away until the end of the day."

"No way," Kirihara says. He pulls his skateboard close to his chest. "Give me detention instead. Or extra clean up duty. Just don't take her away."

"Stop complaining and follow me."

Nishimura begins to walk but Kirihara stays still. Nishimura calmly turns around and shoves his finger into Kirihara's face. Nishimura has one of those dangerous smiles, the kind that seems pleasant but comes with murder eyes, the kind that Yukimura gets when someone insults his friends. Only Nishimura isn't being overprotective, he's being a dick.

"Yukimura isn't around to protect you," Nishimura says. "Do you want me to get the administration involved with this? How many times have you been suspended before?"

Kirihara pales. He can't get suspended again. His mom would kill him.

"Just for today?" Kirihara asks, clutching his skateboard.

"Yagyuu won't let me destroy it, so yes."

Kirihara makes a sour face. "Fine, you can lock her up for the day. Just don't get me in trouble."

Nishimura pivots and walks inside, Kirihara following like he's walking to the gallows. He sees his ex again and her friends pointing at him, talking to her as if they're telling her "I told you he was trouble." Kirihara sends them a mental_ fuck you_.

When they get to the student council room, they see Yagyuu and Yukimura talking.

"What did you do?" Yukimura sighs.

"He ran straight into me on his damn skateboard," Nishimura says. For such a small guy, Nishimura sure has a lot of anger. Or maybe he has a lot of anger because he's small. Kirihara isn't sure.

"We've warned you before," Yagyuu says, effectively stopping Kirihara's chance to defend himself. "What did you want to do, Nishimura-kun?"

"Lock this stupid thing away so he doesn't kill anyone."

"Put it in the back cupboard. I'll unlock it before the end of the day."

Kirihara reluctantly gives up his precious skateboard after a game of tug-of-war with Nishimura. Once it's locked away in the back cupboard, Nishimura leaves and Kirihara looks to Yukimura for help.

"I'm sorry, Akaya, my hands are tied," Yukimura says. "Maybe you should stop skating on school grounds. It takes an extra twenty seconds to walk from the front door to the main gate."

Kirihara grumbles and leaves to cram for his English test.

Yukimura hands Yagyuu the next paper that needs signing and wonders what to do about Kirihara. He thinks of him as a second sibling, in addition to his little sister. He's always encouraged Kirihara to try his best at what he loves, which has led Kirihara to win several street skating tournaments. But if he keeps getting trouble in school, it will be quite troublesome.

"Yukimura," Yagyuu says, holding out his hand for the next paper.

"Sorry; it seems my mind is preoccupied," Yukimura says and reaches for the stack of busy work papers.

They work in relative silence, Yukimura passing papers and Yagyuu signing quickly, until Yagyuu's phone chimes in his bag.

"Can you check my phone please?" Yagyuu asks. "I'm expecting a text from my sister."

Yukimura finds Yagyuu's phone in his bag after a minute of digging and checks the sender of the message.

"'Niou-kun?'" Yukimura reads. Yagyuu stretches out his hand and, smiling slyly, Yukimura places the phone in his palm. "What exactly is your relationship with Niou? I saw you two together at my party. You seem close."

"We're friends."

"Niou doesn't seem like the type of person you would be friends with."

"You're making something out of nothing," Yagyuu says. Yukimura hums, obviously not convinced. Yagyuu doesn't say anymore.

He checks Niou's message.

_what's the red head's name? M-something? the singer from zth_

Yagyuu frowns at his phone and replies.

_Marui Bunta. He's in your class. _

Yagyuu is not oblivious to Yukimura's intrigued eyes, which are stuck to him like glue. He merely ignores them and tries not to let anything show. He has good reason to believe that Yukimura knows his sexuality and even if that is the case, he does not want to accidentally out Niou or reveal the nature of their relationship since it isn't exactly a socially normative relationship. Being homosexual is dangerous at his age and Yagyuu does not want to tread on thinner ice than he already is.

He signs the remaining papers then goes to class and makes idle chit chat with Sanada while they wait for the teacher to arrive. They talk about Sanada's upcoming kendo tournaments, Kirihara's aversion to authority, and the party from last weekend. His phone chimes with another message.

"You should turn that off before the teacher comes," Sanada says.

"I will," Yagyuu says, turning off the volume then opening Niou's message.

_make out in third floor bathroom usual time?_

_Sure._

* * *

**A/N: I know this is significantly shorter than the first three chapters, but I didn't want to add a bunch of BS just to reach a word count.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5.**

Helping Zero to Hero record an album is the strangest, most rewarding experience Yanagi has ever had. Two years ago, when the band was just starting, he had helped them edit and piece together a seven song album in Marui's basement. A year ago, he helped book a recording studio to re-record everything at a better quality, plus two new songs, and the sales went through the roof. In just a year, they've approached one thousand albums sold.

This time, they have a week to record and edit eleven songs. Plus they have school for five days and since Yanagi refuses to jeopardize his perfect GPA, they're only recording after school hours. They start on Sunday and have to be done on Saturday; they can't afford the price of the recording studio for any longer. Jackal had to pick up extra shifts at his family's restaurant to cover the costs that his bandmates couldn't.

Yanagi shows up at the recording studio at seven, an hour before the rest of the band is scheduled to arrive, and begins to set up. He tests out the equipment and double checks to make sure all the proper connections and wires are in working order. He signs for the band's instruments when they arrive at seven thirty and begins to grueling work of lugging everything inside—Kato's drums, Oyama and Urayama's electric and acoustic guitars, Urayama's keyboard, and Jackal's bass guitar.

The room they managed to book was small and cheap, but from what Yanagi can tell, it'll do just fine. The band might have to squeeze in the recording room but since they play in Marui's basement, they're used to squeezing so it won't affect anything.

Oyama and Urayama show up just after Yanagi finishes wheeling Kato's drums into the recording room. Yanagi is sitting on the sofa in the tech room and trying to act like his arms don't hurt.

"Coffee?" Oyama asks, holding up a stack of six styrofoam cups from a cheap cafe. Yanagi takes a cup, knowing that he'll need the caffein, and thanks him.

Marui shows up minutes later and looks like utter hell. He has dark, unsightly bags under his bloodshot eyes and is wearing a ratty old t-shirt and worn out jeans. His lips are chewed red, like he forgot his gum and needed something to chew on. He takes a cup of coffee and checks over all the instruments.

"Where's your violin?" Marui asks, looking at Urayama, then Yanagi. "We need it for acoustics. And Kato's maracas and tambourine and cajon and stuff."

"I don't have a good case for it so I don't like shipping it with the rest of the instruments," Urayama says. "It's in my room. Kato's stuff is at her house. She'll bring it when we need it."

"Did you sleep at all?" Oyama asks. "We went over all of this last night."

"I got a few hours," Marui says, rubbing his eyes and chewing his cheek. "I kept going over all the music and when I finally called it a night, I was too excited to sleep."

Oyama tosses Marui a piece of gum and hopes he doesn't choke on it.

Jackal and Kato come in together, dancing and singing a few of the new songs with enough spare energy to wake up Marui. Kato goes straight to the box housing her drums and begins to unpack, setting up in the back of the recording room.

"Yanagi, we ready to go?" Marui asks.

"I need you all to warm up, then run through a song or two so I can properly adjust the audio settings," Yanagi says. Marui spits his gum back into the wrapper.

As the band unpacks their equipment and Marui warms his voice and throat with simple vocal exercises, Yanagi moves to his spot in front of the equipment. This isn't his first time in a proper recording studio, and he equipment and setup is similar to the kind used by the different establishments the bands frequents.

Yanagi loves music. He anticipates the vibrations of the steady, understated bass and the ring out decrescendo of a note as a song ends. He appreciates well crafted, literary metaphors in the lyrics and the blunt, obvious meaning behind honest lines. He enjoys watching live performances and seeing band members smile into a microphone or jump with a rift they love to play.

Zero to Hero combines everything he loves about music and adds their own twist to everything they do. Yanagi was first introduced to band through a long series of mutual acquaintances. Urayama and Oyama are friends with Kirihara, who is friends with Yukimura, who knows Sanada, who encouraged them to produce an album two years ago. Sanada's exact words had been, "If you're going to half-ass something, don't even bother."

Something about that had set a spark in the band and they began to record and play public shows. Yanagi has helped them with their audio and lighting at shows for three years and he makes sure their equipment gets to where it needs to be. Jackal considers him their manager, but Yanagi doesn't interfere with where they play or how they play and he refuses to get paid for his help. Yanagi merely assists them because he likes their music and if that makes him their manager, then he'll accept the title.

Yanagi flicks on the microphones and gives them the green light. He watches with rapt admiration as they go through their pre-performance quirks. Marui holds his chunky headphones over his ears and jumps before pressing his lips up to the microphone. Kato spins her drumsticks exactly six times to get a feel for them. Jackal plays the same series of notes on his bass guitar at varying speeds with his fingers, then with several different picks he keeps in his case. Urayama moves his keyboard to the side and straps his bubble gum pink guitar across his chest. Oyama's the lead guitar player, but some songs require two guitars and Urayama can play just as well as Oyama. The two guitarists look at each other and play the same chord in perfect unison, then switch off into two different melodies that blend together.

"Ready, Yanagi?" Jackal asks.

"Yes," Yanagi answers.

Kato counts them out with her sticks then they break out into one of their old songs. Oyama and Urayama bring them in with a series of cacophonous guitar chords and Marui's wavering voice, then harsh sound switches when Marui comes in with the first verse. Marui's lips drag along the flat, circular microphone as he sings.

"_I've got that lefty curse  
Where everything I do is flipped  
And awkwardly reversed."_

Yanagi begins to adjust the microphone volumes, turning down the guitar and drums and upping Marui's voice to compensate for the drums. Oyama sings backup or echoes, and Yanagi struggles to find balance between the mic to his guitar and his voice.

When he finishes fiddling and turns his attention back to the band, looking at them through a window, he sees Marui smiling against the microphone as he sings. Despite being dead tired and stressed about the album, they're having fun and it shows in the quality of the sound. There's a reason Zero to Hero is Yanagi's favorite band.

By the end of the song, Oyama and Marui are singing different lyrics in tandem without faltering.

_"I don't look innocent enough.  
We're too young to be cynics (we've got a big, big mess on our hands)  
We won't wish any harm at all  
Don't give in, don't give up (we've got a big, big mess)  
No one looks innocent with this big, big mess on our hands tonight  
(A big, big mess. we've got a big, big mess on our hands)._

_"When it all comes crashing."_

The end comes sharp and abrupt.

"I have a good idea of how to adjust the audio," Yanagi says into his speaker. "Although, it wouldn't hurt to run through a few more songs before moving to the new material."

They run through two of their old songs and a cover of a pop song before deciding to start one of the new songs. Yanagi has a good base for how loud they play, though some songs deviate from the norm and he'll have to adjust as they go.

Yanagi hasn't heard the finalized versions of the majority of the new songs and he doesn't know any of the titles, which the band swore to keep secret until the album release. So when they decide to start with About A Girl and Kato counts them, Yanagi doesn't know what to expect.

He isn't disappointed—he never is with Zero to Hero.

"_One song about a girl  
I can't breathe when I'm around her.  
I'll wait here everyday  
In case she'll scratch the surface.  
She'll never notice."_

Marui is not usually an overly metaphorical writer. Some of the fans like to think otherwise, twisting his lyrics to mean things they don't. Of course, this does not mean that there isn't a meaning to songs that Marui intends for everyone to understand. The band knows things about some songs that others don't. Yanagi has a feeling this is one of those songs.

Marui holds his headphones with his hands as he sings into the microphone, his face transforming into a mirror of his emotions when he hits the chorus.

_"I'm not in love.  
This is not my heart.  
I'm not gonna waste these words  
About a girl."_

They don't get it perfect on the first try. Even considering their natural talents, that would be a miracle.

On the fourteenth try, after several short breaks, Yanagi tells them to stop while he cuts and edits part of this take into another. Kato goes for a smoke break, and Jackal and Urayama leave to find a vending machine. Marui digs through the bag he brought and pulls out a squirt bottle of honey and a spoon. He hums around the honey coated spoon and passes it off to Oyama, the only other person in the band who sings.

"What'd you think?" Marui asks before taking a second spoonful of honey.

"I liked it," Yanagi says truthfully. "It was rather blunt, though. Of course, I may be more likely to read between the lines since I already know you're bisexual."

"We debated not putting it on but we all liked it and honestly, I'm sick of keeping it a secret in my music," Marui says.

"We decided to call it artistic license when people ask why he wrote it," Oyama says.

"That always seems to work," Yanagi says.

When Kato, Urayama and Jackal return, Yanagi turns on the speakers and plays back the edited version he just pieced together. It's perfect, but the band is hesitant to call it finished. They decide to let the song sit for a bit and see whether they want to come back to it or not later.

Yanagi goes to get a soda while they set up for the next song. It's going to be a long day.

.

They stay at the studio until midnight, eating cheap takeout for dinner and playing songs like they're beating a dead horse. Urayama is so tired that he sleeps through almost all of his classes on Monday. He only manages to avoid detention because he sits in the back behind Oyama, who is so tall that he acts as a shield. Urayama could probably be naked and his teacher wouldn't be able to see him.

Urayama closes his eyes and leans against Marui on the train as he eats from Oyama's bag of recording munchies, which are basically chunks of solid, colored sugar. Oyama keeps telling him he needs to wake up before they get to the studio and Urayama grumbles, "Five more minutes," every five minutes until they get there. He dips his hand back into Oyama's bag of candy and hopes sugar will be enough.

The second they get inside and he stands in front of his keyboard, he wakes up. He adjusts the sound output on the board until it makes the right sound for the song.

"So how are we doing this?" Urayama asks.

"We talked about it on the way here," Jackal says.

"I wasn't on the train," Kato points out.

"And I was asleep," Urayama says, smiling.

Yanagi's voice comes in through the speaker, "Urayama is going to play through on his keyboard. Once we get that, we'll record the second guitar part and the clapping separately, and add those in."

It takes four tries for Marui to come in on the right note. He's either a second too early or too late and Oyama's tempo is thrown off.

_"They carved a message deep within our broken hearts that failed to mend:  
Make out kids never had a chance to be best friends."_

Recording the parts separately is strange. The input in Marui's headphones incomplete and he wishes he could sing along to all the parts at once. He stops singing halfway through the song, after Urayama has botched the keyboard and Kato has lost the tempo.

"Let's do this separately," Marui says. "I'll add in the lyrics at the end."

They go into the recording room one by one, playing cards while one of them works. When Marui goes back in after several hours to add in his vocals, he hears the full song come in through his headphones and his voice and it's perfect. But somehow he still manages to come in on the wrong note and Kato won't shut up about it.

.

On Tuesday, Jackal texts his girlfriend during glass.

_Let's skip._

_Now?_ Aiko replies.

_Yes. _

_Marui's a bad influence on you. _

_Come onnnnn._

_Fiiiiine.  
Meet in greenhouse in ten minutes.  
Operation Delinquent is a go.  
Don't compromise us soldier._

_Never, Lieutenant. _

Jackal fakes a stomach ache to skip forth period. He sneaks out through the gym and meets Aiko in the green house that belongs to the gardening club behind the school. The pollen from the flowers itches his nose and one of the pipes drips at a constant rate, the droplets splashing down into a filled bucker and slowly driving him insane.

He spreads out his blazer and she puts down her sweater over the dirt speckled floor. Resting his head in her lap, he looks up at her.

"Sorry for making you skip," Jackal says.

"I wouldn't have come if I didn't want to," Aiko says, fiddling with his tie. "I hate English lecture anyways."

"We should do this more often."

"You mean ditch class? No way. We would fail as delinquents. You're too straight edge and I care way too much about getting into university to do this ever, ever again."

"Never ever?" Jackal asks.

"Never ever," Aiko laughs.

Jackal reaches up and moves her curls away from her face. "I can't wait until we graduate. I'll have my music and my family's restaurant, and you'll have school. Then after you graduate and go to veterinary school we can get an apartment or something. We'll figure everything out along the way."

"You make it sound like you want to spend forever with me," Aiko says.

"'They say that love is forever, but your forever is all that I need.'"

"Is that a song lyric?"

"Yes, but it's not one of Marui's."

Aiko smiles and reaches for his hand, lacing their fingers together. "You're such a dork," she says and leans down to kiss him.

They go back inside when they hear the lunch bell, kissing before parting, and Jackal promises to call her after they're done in the studio. He goes through the rest of the day in a haze, his fingers restless. He forms chords on his fingers and taps his foot to the beat in his head. At the end of the day, he gets a text from Aiko.

_Good luck babe._

Jackal goes down the steps two at the time and takes a few pieces of candy when Oyama offers them to the band on the train.

"What are you so happy about?" Marui asks him after their fifth take of the song. Oyama and Urayama keep getting tripped up on a few tricky chords and the one time they don't, Marui is so surprised he messed up his lyrics.

"Just things," Jackal says.

"Weirdo," Marui says. "Let's try it again. One, two—"

.

Marui spends Wednesday writing out the lyrics to the song they're recording today. They've decided to only do one song today since it's special in a way. It's the song he wrote for Kato back in junior high when things were shit for them. It's taken them over three years to record it and it feels strange knowing that at the end of the day, after his history test and a few hours in the studio, that after one day in the studio, part of their lives will finally be put to rest.

Kato is waiting for them at the train station by the studio. She hops onto Marui's back and he carries her piggy-back to the studio. She taps out a beat on his head with her fingers and his thighs become her bass and his ears her symbols. Marui makes up lyrics off the top of his head to accompany her and it sounds like flowery, poetic shit.

He puts her down behind her drums and moves in front of his mic. He looks at his band while they tune in their instruments and warm up. He watches as Kato plays the beat to the song on her drum set like its muscle memory.

When Yanagi gives them the green light, the words pour out of him like pure emotion. The memories and words are like triggers to him.

_"Somewhere hiding underneath,  
Kicking off covers while you sleep.  
Soon you're gonna leave, so leave us one  
More weekend."_

He remembers sitting in Kato's room while she talks about sleeping and never waking up. Fearing she wouldn't make it to the weekend. Crying and screaming because it wasn't supposed to be like this. Writing songs and feeling like a freak for liking boys and girls. Hating themselves more than they ever thought was possible.

_"Somewhere hiding underneath,  
Running around these empty streets.  
Do you think you're better off dead,  
Better off dead than alive in here?  
You've got all the friends you need,  
Bad tattoos and worse IDs. You feel alive,  
Do you feel alive?"_

He looks over his shoulder at Kato and she's lost in what she's doing. Marui smiles and whirls around, barely making his intro for the chorus in the time.

_"You'll go off, you'll forget,  
You'll grow out of hanging from the edges,  
Breaking off the past.  
You'll know when to move on,  
You'll know when to take all the right chances,  
Never looking back."_

Writing this had been his one solace to her during those years. He wrote it for her, for himself, and for every kid who didn't make it through like they did.

But that's in the past. All of it is. All those crappy feelings and worries that seem so stupid now are gone. And they're still standing.

The song fades out. As he slips off his headphones, Kato jumps out of her seat and wraps her arms around his torso. She presses her face in-between his shoulder blades. He's conflicted at the dampness that spreads across the fabric of his uniform and the laughter that comes out of her mouth.

"I took my pills this morning and thought of this song," she says, voice cracking with out of place laughter and emotion, "and when I thought about this song, I realized I never thanked you for writing it. So thanks."

Marui breaks away from her hold and turns around to hug her. Urayama, Oyama and Jackal watch silently. They know, but they don't get it, not the way Marui does. Kato's depression was always bewildering to them. Even he doesn't quit understand it. His dark times were different from hers.

"Don't say shit that doesn't need saying," Marui says.

"Asshole," Kato mutters.

"Yeah, I know." Marui wants to do something like kiss the top of her head or say he loves her, but she would just punch him. Urayama is tearing up and Marui laughs, "What the hell are you crying for?"

Urayama shrugs and wipes at his eyes. "I'm a sympathetic cryer, okay?"

"You big baby!" Kato says. She leaves Marui and goes to rub Urayama's hair until it's a mess. That's the moment that Marui knows for sure that things are better.

.

On Thursday, Urayama makes Oyama and Marui drink tea with honey before they even step foot into the recording room. Kato is sitting on the sofa doing homework and Jackal is on Skype with Yukimura, who is at the school's art studio working on their album art. Sanada periodically walks behind Yukimura, grumbling about something or another.

Urayama takes the violin he had carried with him all day and goes into the recording room. A few of their songs, mainly the acoustics, have tunes that can't be expressed through guitars or keyboards. Urayama picks up instruments from time to time so they don't have to rope in another member. The violin is one of the instruments he learned in addition to the guitar and keyboard. He also knows ukelele, the cello, and some instrument that no one else can pronounce.

When the two have finished their tea and Urayama is finished playing the violin, Oyama and Marui settle onto stools in the recording room and adjust the mics to the proper heights. Urayama switches to his acoustic guitar. They spend a few minutes tuning their guitars and voices before Yanagi gives them the green light.

Marui loves Urayama and Oyama's acoustic guitars. Urayama's has rainbow paint all over his white guitar—words spelling inside jokes, names of his bandmates, song titles and lyrics that curve with the wood, small doodles that make sense to him and no one else. Oyama's black acoustic looks brand new at first glance, but like his electric, it has nicks and scratches from over the years. They're named Thing One and Thing Two, but Marui always forgets which is which.

Oyama taps them in on his guitar, and Urayama and he come in together. The three have done their acoustics together since Marui was in junior high, back before they could afford electric guitars and amps, and it always comes out sounding natural.

_"Looking out at a town called Suburbia,  
Everybody's just fighting to fit in,  
Little rats running mazes, having babies.  
It's a vicious little world that we live in.  
Looking back at a life on the other side,  
I realize that I didn't fit in,  
Didn't hate it but I didn't quite relate it  
To my precious little world."_

Oyama joins in at the chorus. Marui's voice is smooth and practiced, while Oyama's is rougher and deeper but it melts in with Marui's like they were meant to be mixed.

_"So long live the reckless and the brave.  
I don't think I want to be saved.  
My song has not been sung._

_"And long live the fast times, so come what may.  
I don't think I'll ever be saved.  
Our song has not been sung.  
Long live us."_

Kato claps when they finish the song even though they can't hear her inside the recording room. Jackal and Yukimura have gone silent, unable to say a word. Sanada stands still, blinking dumbly behind Yukimura in the back of the art studio.

"That was perfect," Yanagi says.

"I want to run through it again," Marui says, adjusting his headphones. "It can be better. It has to be better."

"It really was fine. I can play if back for you."

"Just leave him be," Kato says.

"Yeah," Jackal agrees. "He likes that song too much to only play it once anyways."

"Shut up!" Marui says, but there's no real anger behind it. "Let's go again, guys."

Oyama counts them off.

They do ten more takes of that song, but the first still sounds the best. They're just about to take a break when Yukimura and Sanada come by with bags of hot, greasy food. Kato snatches a bag of fries from Sanada, sticking her tongue out when he scowls. Yukimura passes out burgers to everyone.

The band crams in on the tiny sofa; Kato has to sit on Jackal's knees and Urayama sits sideways with his legs stretched out over Oyama and Marui's laps. They laugh and tell bad jokes and throw insults, passing the same drink back and forth because they're too lazy to get up.

At some point, Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi come to realize that they will never fully understand the band or the songs the way they do.

.

Kirihara comes with them to the recording studio on Friday and they all agree that is the biggest mistake of their lives. He won't sit still and when they send him outside to skate, he comes back twenty minutes later complaining about how bored he is. "The stairs suck, there are no rails, and there's no bumps," Kirihara complains. Even with soundproof headphones, Yanagi is having a difficult time tuning out the younger boy.

To make it worse, they still have three songs to record by tomorrow night and they can't waste a second. Kirihara has the tendency to waste _hours_.

While the band works on Skeptics and True Believers in the recording room, Kirihara is stretched across the sofa, singing an overrated pop song very loudly and very, _very_ badly. Kirihara doesn't have one artistic bone in his body and he certainly doesn't have artistic vocal chords.

Marui's tongue gets twisted on the lyrics, Kato's hands are sore, Urayama's fingers have blisters, and Oyama and Jackal are visibly pissed at everything with a pulse.

"We can do this," Urayama says.

Jackal grits his teeth, biting back a comment.

"I need to smoke," Kato says. "We're not getting anywhere and we don't have time to record everything. We're fucked and not in the fun way."

"Come on," Urayama pleads. "One more time. I'm sure we'll get it."

Yanagi's voice cuts through on the speakers the exact second Marui is about to lose it. "I have an idea; please hold on one moment," he says. "Kirihara, please give me your iPod."

Yanagi repeats his requests three more times before shouting, which startles Kirihara, who jumps clear off the sofa and hits the floor.

"Fuck!" Kirihara swears. "What?"

"Give me your iPod," Yanagi says. Kirihara complies and after some quick tinkering, Kirihara's iPod is connected to the speakers. He goes back on the microphone and says, "You're all going to sing along to whatever song comes up and you're going to stop fighting."

"I'm not singing," Jackal grumbles.

"Fuck this bullshit," Kato says.

Yanagi puts Kirihara's iPod on shuffle. He immediately recognizes the unreasonably catchy pop song that comes on. The band remains stubbornly silent, which Yanagi figures is an improvement from shouting at each other.

"What if this doesn't work?" Kirihara asks.

"We'll have them all play separately and combine their best takes," Yanagi says.

"Shouldn't you have done that from the start? So they don't have to play perfectly all the time?"

"It takes too much time. We only do it when we have to. We don't have the luxury of having an undefined amount of time to work on each song. Besides, Marui tends to work better with the band."

When the chorus hits, the band breaks out into unified song.

Kirihara bends over laughing as they flawlessly go through the chorus. Yanagi smiles victoriously. It's a trick he learned while recording their previous album, but it loses it's effectiveness quickly because they will sit there all afternoon singing other people's songs instead of their own.

"I fucking hate you, Bowl!" Kato says when the chorus ends.

"I hate this song," Oyama says.

"But you're singing along, Kenta," Urayama laughs.

"It's impossible not to sing along to this," Marui says.

Their conversation is cut off by the next chorus and they sing again.

Yanagi lets Kirihara's iPod play through three songs until they're switching off parts and singing along to every word, not just the chorus, and their banters have turned friendly and non murderous. Kirihara takes a video of Oyama singing while Jackal dances as if he's alone, his hips moving like liquid.

When they stop and go back to playing, they hit ever note and chord.

.

Saturday is spent fixing any songs they aren't completely happy with. If one person in the band doesn't like something, they rerecord that part and edit it in. Yanagi uses his magic with the audio and makes it sound so flawless that Urayama is almost in tears again. They play back all the songs in the order they will appear on the album and Marui desperately wants to hear what other people think.

"Seiichi and Genichirou will be here soon," Yanagi says. "Seiichi is bringing the art."

"Are we changing anything else?" Marui asks.

"It's all perfect, don't you dare even _mention _the idea of changing something, Marui Bunta," Kato says.

She shoves her finger in his face and he laughs, "Wouldn't dream of it. Just making sure."

Urayama grabs Kato's wrist and moves her finger from his face. Oyama pulls a bag of gummy worms out of nowhere and begins to eat them, sharing them with Jackal who calls Aiko to let her know they're done and he'll be over early to study. Marui and Kato begin to bicker about something stupid, dragging Urayama into the middle of it.

Yanagi is the only one to notice when Yukimura and Sanada arrive.

"How did you put up with them?" Sanada asks. He looks at Kato as she talks with her hands, making a passionate point about something musical. Then he looks at the rest of the band and mentally compares Zero to Hero to the worst, most unorganized army in existence.

"I have no idea," Yanagi sighs.

Yukimura clears his throat and that gets their attention.

"Holy shit!" Kato screeches. "When'd you get here?"

"Witchcraft!" Marui adds.

The band laughs. Then they realize why Yukimura is here. Yukimura is holding a canvas covered by a piece of cloth—their album art. The band goes quiet as they wait for Yukimura to say something.

"Before I show you, do we have an album title?" Yukimura asks, hopeful.

The bandmates look at each other, nodding and smiling until their eyes settle on Urayama to announce their decision. Urayama says, "It's called Bigger, Longer and Uncut," and the band laughs again.

"You're the best band of our generation and you make a penis joke?" Yukimura says.

"We named our band after a Disney song," Jackal says.

"Fair point. May I present to you"—Yukimura grips the fabric blocking his work, yanking it away in one fluid moment—"Bigger, Longer and Uncut."

"Holy shit, Girly, that's—" Kato stops, her jaw hanging open, unable to find the right word.

Jackal opens his mouth several times, but nothing comes out and he ends up looking like a fish. He eventually manages to say, "What she said."

Urayama eyes widen to the size of saucers and he jumps subtly t in excitement, saying, "Kenta, Kenta. It's awesome. _Kenta_." Urayama grabs at Oyama's shoulder, shaking him until Oyama smiles and nods in silent agreement.

Marui can't do anything but stare at Yukimura's creation.

It's a collage of old magazines clipped and pieced together to form the head of a gorgeous woman with pink lips and long dark hair. There's a roughness to its beauty and a small amount of chaos that flows from curve to curve. There are no words to explain how perfect it seems, how for some reason it seems to resonate with the band without needing words.

"We did it," Marui says.

"Fuck yeah!" Kato shouts.

* * *

**A/N: In order, the songs are "We've Got A Big Mess On Our Hands" by The Academy Is, "About A Girl" by The Academy Is, "Make Out Kids" by Motion City Soundtrack, "One More Weekend" by The Academy Is, "The Reckless & The Brave - Acoustic" by All Time Low, and "Skeptics And True Believers" (mentioned) by The Academy Is.**

**Different type of chapter but yay, vague character backgrounds! **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6.**

The band drops off the face of the earth on Sunday. Kato sleeps the entire day, setting a new personal record with twenty-two straight hours of sleep. Jackal goes to Aiko's to study but ends up falling asleep on her floor, missing lunch and dinner. Marui doesn't hear anything from Oyama or Urayama, but he assumes they're okay and just in sugar comas. Marui stays up the entire day writing, like he's on some sort of high. He works on lyrics to new songs and the bare skeleton of the instrumentals, then crashes Monday morning, just before school.

He feels like a zombie. His eyes are heavy with exhaustion, his hands won't listen to him, and he is desperately trying to stay awake and not nod off during the middle of math. He digs his nails into his palm, which hurts but doesn't do anything to help him stave off sleep. He puts a new piece of gum in his mouth and hopes the taste will help trick his brain.

"Marui-kun, spit out that gum!" the teacher snaps.

"Fuck off," Marui says without thinking.

The class goes silent and Marui has a slow moment of realization. Niou stares at him with surprised eyes and a proud upward twist of his lips.

Marui wants to disappear entirely, but he realizes that that probably won't happen. The teacher's face is red, quickly turning an ugly purple, and he looks ready to pop a vein. Marui would bet his teacher would chase him out of the room if he decided to bolt. Would jumping out the window help?

_Say something,_ Marui thinks. _Or it'll just get worse._

"Sir," Marui says slowly, breaking the uncomfortable silence, "I didn't mean—"

With a tight jaw and clenched teeth, the teacher snaps, "You have detention for the rest of the week! Report to the disciplinary room at the end of the day."

Marui doesn't even try to argue because he's probably getting off easy. _I fucked up, _he thinks.

The teacher returns to teaching, though his tone is different and the class is deathly afraid to ask any questions for the rest of the day. Marui looks over at Niou, who is staring at the board like he always does.

Marui sinks into his seat and falls asleep. It's not like he could get into anymore trouble.

He wakes up to texts from everyone, even Kato, telling him that they heard about his stupid outburst. Marui isn't surprised that the story spread that fast—nothing stays secret for long in high school—but he's still mildly impressed that Kato found out from someone other than Aiko, Jackal, Oyama or Urayama. His favorite text is the one from Aiko saying she knew it was only a matter of time until he lost it, and the second text she sent saying that she's making lemon bars and that she'll bring him some tomorrow. Marui doesn't care if Aiko is giving him those lemon bars out of pity or friendship because those things are his ambrosia. He would gladly fight someone to the death over the last lemon bar of a batch.

At the end of the day, he heads down to the disciplinary room in the basement. The room is at the of a long, unused hall with empty classes filled with broken TVs and boxes of Erlenmeyer flasks. Marui pretends not to be freaked out by the missing ceiling tiles and the disgusting, arbitrary brown spots on the floor. He wonders how Kirihara survives walking through this place at least every other week for detention. Marui is glad he chose to rebel through music and not misconduct.

The door creaks when he opens it and, like a bad horror movie, the lights flicker when he hits the switch. He sits in the front row at a dusty desk and pulls up a game on his phone to dick around until the teacher on duty comes by.

The door opens and Niou walks in, sits down next to him, and changes the song he's listening to. Since Yukimura's party, Marui has made a conscious effort to listen to Niou's music. Marui has realized that Niou wasn't kidding about listening to his band nonstop. Today is an exception, but Marui still recognizes the indie band and approves of Niou's music choices.

"You got detention too?" Marui asks. "Why?"

"It's from gym," Niou says with a bored expression. "I don't like taking out my hip piercings and sometimes my shirt rides up." He shrugs like he's used to it.

"Do you ever think that you fit the delinquent teenager stereotype too well?"

"Every once and while."

Marui wonders if Kirihara will come down, but he doesn't. No one does for awhile and Marui debates how much time he has left on this world, half expecting a monster to appear and eat them. The suspense it almost comical.

_It's just detention. And Niou's here._

The teacher shows up ten minutes late with a cup of coffee and a through-with-this-shit expression. He scribbles the start and end time of detention on the blackboard, then looks at them for the first time. His voice is monotone and his hair is nonexistent.

"Do your work. Keep quiet. I'll be back in five minutes."

And just like that, the teacher is gone.

_Talk about anticlimactic. _

Niou puts his music away, grabs his bag, and heads for the door. Marui quickly says, "Where are you going? He'll be back in five minutes."

"That guy won't come back until he needs to let us out," Niou says. He sounds confident about this. Marui wonders just how many times Niou has had detention.

Marui picks up his bag and follows Niou out the door. He doesn't know where Niou is going or what he's going to do, but anything is better than sitting in that creepy room.

Niou studies him for a moment. His unsettling blue eyes make Marui want to hide within his own skin. Niou's face lets no more show than he wants to show, and it reminds Marui of Yukimura to some extent. At the same time, Niou is not like Yukimura, who smiles at his enemies and makes friends with ease. Niou is alien and has a way of getting into your head and making you perceive him a certain way.

Eventually Niou sighs, accepting that Marui is coming whether he wants him to or not, then continues to walk down the hall towards the stairwell. Marui matches his slow pace and gets a piece of gum out of his pocket.

"So you're a slut," Niou says casually, like he's talking about the weather or their homework.

"Nice conversation starter," Marui replies sarcastically. "Yeah, people call me a slut. If you think I'm impressed that you heard a rumor, I'm not."

"I didn't hear it in a rumor. People look at you like you're a slut. Self-righteous assholes look down on people like us."

"People like us?"

"People who like _sex_." The word rolls off of Niou's tongue and is said like Niou is teasing him. Marui blows a bubble as Niou goes on, "What I don't know is what you did to deserve it."

"I have an arrangement with a girl."

"A fuck buddy?"

"Pretty much. Most guys would be praised for getting with a girl like her, but since she approached me with the idea, I'm a slut."

Niou leaves the staircase on the second floor and stops in front of the boys' bathroom, rattling the door knob.

"What's wrong?" Marui asks. "Locked?"

"Yeah. And I left my copy of Yagyuu's master key back in the room." Niou travels a few more feet and tries the girls' room, which is unlocked and opens. He looks over his shoulder at Marui. "Are you coming or not?"

This isn't what people do. People don't skip out on detention and sneak into the girls' bathroom with the hot punk kid who smokes pot.

The girls' room is almost exactly like the boys' only it smells better and lacks urinals along the wall. Niou checks the stalls, then locks the door behind them and sits on the windowsill. He cracks the window and reaches into his pocket to pull out a cheap, red disposable lighter and a twisted roll of off-white paper.

"You're in detention and you're going to get high?" Marui asks.

Niou gives Marui a look, not answering, but it is very clear that Niou plans to get high during detention. Leaning against the sinks, Marui watches Niou light up the joint and inhale deeply. Finally, Niou says, "You can leave. I'm not keeping you here."

Marui shrugs and blows a bubble, like he doesn't care, but he hesitantly looks at the door. Niou blows smoke out the window, not commenting on Marui's anxiety if he notices it.

"Why do you smoke?" Marui asks.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Niou says.

Marui barely knows Niou, but he knows that asking again won't get him an answer.

"So what else do you know about me?" Marui asks curiously.

"You've had your heart broken, you or someone you know was depressed at some point, and you're bi."

Marui can't respond for a few moments. He stares at the enigma of a person in front of him and wonders how, and why, and who can figure that out about the kid who sits next to them in class.

"It's your music," Niou says, inhaling another lungful. He extends his arm and offers the joint to Marui, who stares at the object with trepidation.

"I've never been high," Marui says. He blows a bubble to hide his hesitation.

"You don't have to. It's not fun if you're forced into it."

Marui takes the joint before Niou can pull back his offer. Turning and rolling it between his fingers, he debates the consequences.

"Ah, fuck it," Marui says and Niou smiles.

Marui swallows his gum. He puts the joint between his lips before he changes his mind and inhales a small amount of smoke, then passes the joint back to Niou. The strange taste of smoke and pot linger in his mouth, and it's not entirely unpleasant, but it isn't exactly enjoyable either.

"You write the music, right?" Niou asks, blowing smoke out the window.

"Yeah. The band helps with a word or two, but almost all of it's mine." He pushes Niou's legs to the side and sits on the other end of the windowsill. There's not much room and their knees knock, their legs bumping and intertwining. Marui says, "Not many people catch the depression bit."

Niou rolls the joint and stares out the window. He speaks, but his voice is so easy on the ears and smooth that he may as well be singing, "_When comfort is an empty evening, hanging on to complications. Sometimes quick sand has a massive appeal to me. I want to be somewhere else."_

Marui jumps in, singing the chorus and taping out the beat on his knees:

_"I think I can figure it out,  
But I'm gonna need a little help to get me,  
Need a little help to get me—  
I think I can figure it out,  
But I'm gonna need a little help to get me through it,  
To get me through it."_

Niou hands him the joint and this time, the smoke feels lighter and smoother going down his throat. He holds onto the joint and Niou doesn't complain.

"My friend was suicidal," Marui says. "I hated myself, but I don't think I could be called depressed. I got out a lot easier than she did."

Marui takes in another lungful before finally passing the joint back to Niou, who holds it between his lips.

"Why the hell am I telling you this?" Marui asks.

Niou doesn't respond, which Marui is oddly thankful for.

Marui doesn't know how long they sit there passing the joint back and forth. The longer they're there, the greater the nagging, mind boggling need to write becomes. His mind is whirling with lyrics and tunes, but beneath the lines of words, there's something else on his mind.

"What songs outed me?" he asks. About A Girl is in the new album, not the old one, and he made sure none of the songs on the last album referenced his sexuality bluntly. Some songs contained lines about his self hate and how he felt out of place, but none of them said why.

"They didn't," Niou says. "I guessed and you just told me."

"Asshole." Marui smiles even though he isn't mad.

Niou stamps out the joint, which is now a short nub that is hard to hold, and tosses it out the window. "We should get back," he says.

"But I'm hungry. I lost my snacks," Marui says. Niou smirks. Marui smiles, not knowing why and he wonders if his mind is already laced with pot, and asks, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing."

"I can break into the vending machine on the second floor, but I need scissors or a screwdriver."

"I keep a screwdriver in my bag."

"Why?" Marui laughs.

"Why not?"

Marui pops a stick of gum in his mouth before they leave the girls' bathroom and return to the classroom. As they walk, Marui laughs because he just got high in the girls' bathroom with the new kid. Kato is going to flip a shit when he tells her.

The teacher hasn't returned. So Niou gets his screwdriver and they head back to the second floor where they pull the vending machine away from the wall and Marui teaches Niou how to pry open the back without breaking anything. They take out cans of juice and bags of chips and sweets, then return to the disciplinary room in the basement with their arms full.

Marui is halfway through his pile of snacks when he remembers something. "Your hips are pierced?" he says. "I didn't know that was a thing. What else do you have pierced?"

"That sounds perverted."

Marui reaches into his bag, already uninterested in the subject he brought up, and takes out a pen and pad of paper. He scribbles down the words running in his head and the strings of notes that are stuck on repeat. Niou watches with mild interest, but says nothing.

Marui writes until the end of detention. He tears out almost all of the sheets in his notebook, forming a pile of paper snowballs beneath his desk. Humming and singing under his breath, he loses track of time and soon the teacher comes in to dismiss them. Marui gathers up his failed attempts and shoves them into his bag. By the time he's finished packing, Niou has left without a word.

Marui catches a train home, still mouthing new lyrics and nodding his head to the rhythms in his head. When he gets to his house, he makes a bowl of instant ramen and goes up to his room, sitting on his bed. He goes through the messages on his phone, sees Kato's message telling him to call her, and finds her number in his contacts.

"Hey," Kato says. "I was wondering if you wanted to hang out tonight. I have a shit ton of homework and you're better at history than me. I figured I could pay you back with English help."

"I'm eating ramen," Marui says.

"I'm proud of you. Can I come over?"

"I'm tired so I think I'm going to go to sleep. If you want to come over and watch me sleep, you can."

"You're acting weird. Did some delinquent from detention give you drugs or something?" Marui doesn't respond. "Holy fuck, I was joking. Are you actually high?" Kato asks, laughing.

"Like a plane," Marui replies. "Niou and I had detention together and we got baked in the girls' bathroom."

"Why the girls'?"

"The boys' was locked. How come girls' bathrooms smell better?"

"I don't know," Kato says. He can practically hear the roll of her eyes. "So you got high with the new kid. He's cute. Do you think he's straight or gay?"

"I don't know. I can't tell. Yukimura has better gaydar than me."

"True. Girly has a sixth sense for that shit."

"I wrote some stuff," Marui says, changing the subject once again. "It's totally awesome."

"We can meet up tomorrow and you can show me. I'll go to Jackal's to do homework if Aiko and him aren't fucking," Kato says. "You can also tell me about your drug adventures with Stoner New Kid tomorrow. I want to listen when you're full of regret, not THC. Now get some munchies and go to sleep, you moron."

Kato hangs up. As he's leaving his contacts, he sees a new name. He questions his sanity, decides that the name and number are actually there, and then texts Niou.

_When did you put your number in my phone?_

_I picked your pocket_

_When?_

_Guess _

Marui laughs. He plays Tetris until he falls asleep in his clothes.

.

Marui doesn't wake up feeling like complete shit like he does when he drinks too much, but he isn't exactly in fighting shape. He feels like his brain had been replaced with cotton balls for the night. Everything is fuzzy and he can't remember exactly what they said, but he has the feeling that he wants to remember.

He digs through the balls of paper in his bag, then goes through what he wrote in his notebook, but none of lyrics he wrote make much sense. It's like he combined five different puzzles together and expected them to form one picture. He keeps the few verses he likes and puts the rest of the nonsense in the box under his bed.

He showers and eats cereal with his brothers then leaves for school, meeting Aiko at the corner where their streets meet. She gives him a tupperware container of her lemon bars and he confesses her momentary, absolute love for her. She laughs and promises to keep it a secret from Jackal.

As they walk to the train station, Aiko looks up at him. She's the shortest person Marui knows, standing at around 4'10" on a good day. Next to Oyama, she looks like an ant.

"So I heard from Jackal, who heard from Kato, who said that you got high with the new kid during detention," she says.

"Yeah," Marui says, not sure whether he's embarrassed, ashamed, or neither.

"And how was it?" Aiko asks, smiling.

"Damn you and your convincing smile." Aiko's smile grows until her gums are showing and her lips are stretched thin. With a small smile of his own as he recalls his time with Niou, Marui says, "It was fun."

* * *

**A/N: Lyrics from "A Life Less Ordinary (Need A Little Help)" by Motion City Soundtrack**


End file.
